Sanctuary
by Acidika
Summary: Sequel to my previous story, Humanity. After being reunited with Ryan, Alice and Katie help him further develop his powers while they journey to a rumored safe haven for humanity. However, along the way, the shadow of Umbrella continues to loom over their heads. Rated M for language, violence and eventual sexual content. Alice X OC.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: After the success of Humanity, I decided to write another fresh RE fic, but after scrapping several ideas, I eventually realized how much potential I had given Humanity and decided to continue it with a sequel.

So here it is, the sequel, it begins now, so get ready...

Welcome to Sanctuary.

* * *

Claire sat beside K-Mart in front of a bonfire, waiting for Alice and Katie to return from the woods. She glanced at her watch, a frown pulling at her brow.

A few minutes ticked by, and Claire began to feel nervous. It shouldn't be taking them this long to catch a deer, especially since they were working together. She looked over her shoulder into the treeline as K-Mart finally spoke up.

"You're worried about them, aren't you?"

Claire turned back to K-Mart and let out a sigh. "Yeah, I am. I think Katie took his death pretty hard... Ryan, I mean."

"Alice said it herself, they couldn't have saved him." K-Mart replied gently, placing her hand on Claire's shoulder.

"But I think Katie's at a big risk of committing suicide, you've seen the changes. When Ryan was still alive, she was happy, now... she's isolating herself, shut off from the rest of us." Claire hung her head slightly. "I even think it's affected me as well."

"What has affected you, Claire?" Alice spoke up from behind them, lowering her crossbow as Katie came into view with a black clad figure helping her to carry a doe.

"Who's this?" Claire instantly noticed the newcomer, who was carefully lowering the doe to the ground. She glanced at Katie, then back at Alice, then took a step towards them. "Who are you?"

Alice and Katie exchanged a glance with each other behind Claire's back, tensed for the iminent outburst from Claire.

"Does this answer your question?" The figure asked, pulling his hood and mask down, smiling at her.

There was a heavy silence for about fifteen seconds, broken only by the crackling of the bonfire. Then, surprising them all, Claire sucker punched him in the face and knocked him down onto his back, her expression utterly livid.

"You lied to us!" Claire spun around to Alice, who was wide eyed with surprise. "You fucking said he was dead!"

"You want the truth?" Ryan said from his prone position on the ground. "Remember the gas station before we left to get those supplies?" He indicated Alice and Katie. "We were attacked by some creature thing, and I stabbed it in the head, but one of its teeth cut my thumb, and I was infected."

Claire's jaw almost fell to the ground at his words, and her anger vanishing in an instant. She stared, dumbstruck at the revelation, her left hand blindly reaching out behind her for something to support herself with.

"So we came up with a plan to raid the Umbrella facility that Katie came from, and we went in, but there was an infected scientist there, named Issacs. He was a big ugly freak, and we fought him." Ryan continued talking, which made Claire's shocked face begin to go slightly pale.

"But he was killed during the fight." Alice suddenly spoke up, her arms crossed. "Issacs snapped his neck, right after Ryan managed to plant several explosives onto him. Katie detonated them, and then injected Ryan's body with the Anti-Virus we'd found in the lab."

"So... let me get this straight... You're like Alice and Katie now?" K-Mart asked, confusion plastered all over her face. "You've... bonded with the T-Virus?"

"Yeah, exactly, K-Mart! I can control electricity, like how Katie controls fire." Ryan smiled as he sat upright, allowing a few sparks to travel across his hand, arching between his fingers with a faint crackling sound.

"Claire..." Alice took a small step forward, realizing that Claire was now very pale in the face. "Come here, you look like you're going to fall over."

Claire weakly shook her head, rooted in place, but K-Mart's hand appeared on her shoulder and her face relaxed slightly as K-Mart gave the trio a small nod before leading Claire back to the Hummer.

"Other than almost passing out..." Ryan commented as he swiftly pulled his legs close to his chest and sprang to his feet with a burst of agility. "I think she took that rather well, don't you agree?"

"To her, you just came back from the dead." Alice said with a sidelong glance at him. "But I'm sure she's relieved that you're back with us."

Katie, who had remained silent the entire time gave the doe a glance before she strode away, likely to find Otto to skin it to eat. The moment that she was gone, Alice gave Ryan a sweeping glance, her eyes glinting in the firelight. Her predatory glance was quickly noticed by Ryan, who cocked an eyebrow.

"What's the matter?" He asked, not realizing that she was sizing him up.

"We've got some unfinished business to attend to... Sparky." Alice replied huskily as she took a step very close to him. She instantly noticed the electrifying buzz in the air between them in such close proximity, causing the hairs on the back of her neck to rise with a tingling sensation.

"Really?" Ryan smirked. "Enlighten me."

"Then follow me." Alice took him by the wrist and pulled him towards the forest where they'd been reunited. Once they were out of sight from the camp, Alice suddenly grabbed Ryan by both biceps and pinned him against a tree.

Ryan's glowing yellow eyes were narrowed into slits, but when his face mask smoothly slid down from his face, he realized what she was doing.

Once the mask was all the way down his face, Alice was greeted by Ryan's signature cocky smirk, making her imitate it in turn, just before she launched herself forward and kissed him feverishly.

For both of them, time simply froze at the moment their lips connected. Neither of them separated for several minutes, but when they did, both were out of breath, panting heavily.

They stared at each other, their chests heaving until Ryan smirked and asked. "Do I get any say in this?"

Alice gave him a cute smile before simply stating. "Nope." She pushed herself forward, and nipped at his lower lip, gently pulling it with her teeth, then resuming her passionate kissing, firmly holding him in place against the tree.

Elsewhere, Katie sat in the pickup truck with her arms crossed over her chest, silently fuming to herself. She was there, she saw Alice kiss Ryan. Despite her fucked up eyes, she wasn't blind. She huffed out a sigh. She was jealous of Ryan, her older brother, for being the one that Alice had chosen... When she was the one that liked Alice.

Scoffing to herself, she mused that since Ryan had died, she'd had much more time alone with Alice, during which she had really noticed her feelings towards Alice.

Now that he was back though, Alice had made her descision between the two of them. Katie let her head fall back, closing her eyes. Oh well, she thought to herself. She just had to get over it.

Her final thought before she drifted off to sleep was that at least both Ryan and Alice were happy together.

Alice and Ryan silently reentered the camp after their lengthy time together, neither said anything as they noticed that Katie was asleep in the driver seat of the pickup truck, her head against the window.

Alice pointed over to the central bonfire, which was always given enough wood to burn for at least most of the night. Ryan gave a nod and unslung his G36K, M3 and his bow from his back, quietly depositing them in the back of the truck, and followed Alice to sit beside the fire.

Silently staring into the flames for several minutes, they both glanced at each other a few times, blushed, then stared back into the fire.

"She's gonna clue in, y'know." Ryan suddenly spoke up.

"About us? Seriously, you'd have to be blind, deaf, and completely retarded not to realize we're together. I think Katie's known from long before you were even killed by Issacs." Alice replied, but Ryan shook his head.

"I meant Claire."

Alice shifted over to sit directly beside Ryan, nestling herself against his side comfortably. "What do you mean?" She asked, a teasing glint in her eye as she looked up at him.

"Claire has this thing with relationships within the convoy... romantic ones, I mean." Ryan explained. "If one partner dies, then the one left behind is an emotional wreck... but on the other hand, if they separate, then there's drama between them."

"Do you really think that I'd be a backstabbing bitch?" Alice smiled, her eyes locked on his face.

Ryan easily caught her reference to her kukris, but he shook his head. "You don't seem the type." He laughed quietly.

"Maybe..." Alice shrugged. "You never can really tell. Besides, we don't die that easily, so I think..." Alice stretched her hand up and tugged his mask down, then rose up slightly to give him a kiss. "That Claire should just calm her shit about the two of us."

"You know, I don't think I can... to be completely blunt with you two." Claire's voice suddenly came from behind them, startling them both.

Ryan gave a sheepish grin as Claire sat on Alice's other side, and withdrew her bowie knife, picking under her fingernails with it.

"You don't approve of us being together? Even though both of us bonded with the T-Virus?" Ryan asked, his yellow eyes glinting in the flickering firelight with an unusually sinister sparkle.

"No, I don't. Honestly... I couldn't care less about you two both having it. I'm more concerned about the possible shitstorm you might cause when you break up." Claire answered, sternly pointing her knife at them before returning to attackng her nails.

"You say that like it's guarenteed to happen." Alice commented, pointedly inching herself closer to Ryan's chest, feeling her hair begin to stand on end as the static electricity that he now constantly generated began to strengthen with his rising annoyance.

"I'm sure it was different for you, having travelled alone for so long... But within the convoy, it took over a dozen relationships before I imposed that rule..." Claire's hands stopped moving when she faltered into a stone cold silence for a few seconds. "Ask Ryan about Sherry." She ordered as she pointedly averted her gaze away from the pair.

"Sherry? Who was she?" Alice looked at Ryan, whose expression had darkened considerably. Unknown to Claire though, his static has strengthened considerably as well, making Alice inwardly uneasy.

"Sherry Birkin, a young girl that Claire rescued from Raccoon City. When I first joined the convoy, Sherry, Claire and K-Mart were extremely close... even closer than you, me and Katie, in fact."

When Ryan paused, Alice felt his static weaken, and heard a faint note of sadness in his voice. She waited for him to continue, but he clenched his jaw and remained silent for over a minute before Claire suddenly spoke up.

"Sherry was infected with a prototype virus created by her father, who worked for Umbrella. She, Ryan and I were together when she revealed it to him, and we didn't realize it at that moment... but there were some bandits eavesdropping on our chat, hiding behind the vehicles." Claire turned her head towards Alice, who listened in a stone cold silence.

"Was her father named William Birkin? Because if my memory serves correct, he was head of the G-Virus Program." Alice thought hard of the surname Birkin, and remembered a report she'd received while she was head of security for the Hive.

Claire nodded. "Exactly. As soon as she said it, one of the bandits shot her in the face, screaming his head off about 'they've got infected, kill them all!' to the other fuckers hiding in the camp."

"She was executed right in front of you?" Alice inhaled sharply, her expression one of utter shock as she looked at Ryan's barely concealed anger.

"Exactly, but here's the part that made me instigate my relationship rule: Sherry was the favourite of the entire convoy: Carlos, LJ, Ryan, Mikey, K-Mart, even myself... we all loved her. She was young, cute, and above all, full of hope." Claire leaned forward slightly. "I'll give you three guesses as to who took her death the hardest."

Without even thinking, Alice knew who Claire meant, and glanced at Ryan with sadness in her eyes. "It was you."

Ryan let out a sigh, "Yeah." He breathed, looking away from Alice, but she put her hand on his cheek and pulled his face closer to her own.

"Was it because she reminded you of Katie, when she was taken by Umbrella?" Alice whispered softly to him, forcing him to maintain eye contact with her hand whenever he tried to look away. "Tell me, please..."

"Yes." Ryan finally admitted, defeated. "Yes, Sherry reminded me of Katie... before everything... and everyone went straight to Hell in a handbasket."

"See?" Claire looked directly towards Alice. "No relationships allowed in my convoy, because I can be the bigger backstabbing bitch than you."

Alice pursed her lips for a moment before her lips tugged into a sinister smile. Ryan and Claire both noticed.

"What are you smiling about?" Claire narrowed her eyes suspiciously, suddenly tensed.

"Just had an idea you'd hate, don't worry." Alice replied as she stood up. "I have them quite often... I just never let it show."

Claire shot Ryan an annoyed glance at her comment, but even he was confused by her words. They both watched as Alice bade them goodnight and joined Katie inside the pickup truck, leaving them to ponder her dark words.

**A/N: I'll be uploading this story in sets of five chapters, until it is completed. So keeping reading! :D**


	2. Chapter 2

At dawn the next morning, Alice awoke to the sound of the truck's door closing. She opened one eye and caught a glimpse of Ryan's black clad figure walking with Katie towards the nearest bonfire, where a few others were already gathered.

Settling herself back into her seat, she closed her eyes again, preparing to drift off when she heard the truck door open again.

Thinking that Katie or Ryan were retrieving something, she didn't move or say anything until a hand suddenly gripped her by the throat and made her open her eyes in panic.

Leering at her mere inches from her face was most certainly a bandit.

"Scream and I'll slit your tongue right outta your mouth, got it?" He snarled.

Alice glared at him, glancing out the windshield towards Ryan, the only one at the bonfire who could see inside the truck. But Ryan's gaze was on Katie, not scanning the surrounding camp. Alice had to think fast or risk being wounded.

"I can make it worth your while." Alice purred quietly, narrowing her eyes seductively.

Without missing a beat, the bandit shifted in the driver seat and released his hold from her throat.

"No funny business, ya hear me?" He reminded her.

"Oh, certainly." Alice replied huskily as she began to concentrate on Ryan's T-Virus aura. She slowly reached for the man's thigh and began to teasingly slide her hand from his knee to his groin, buying a few more seconds.

She was trying to focus her Telekinesis onto Ryan's body, so that she could move his head towards the truck to notice what was going on... but she couldn't quite get his head to turn.

Upping the ante, Alice reached for his belt as she tried to broadcast her Telekinesis to the bonfire itself, making it flare up slightly... but Katie unknowingly intervened and made the rising flames fall back down to their previous level.

As Alice unbuckled the bandit's belt, she noticed that other bandits were hiding around the edge of the camp, ready to strike...

Wait... ready to strike! Her wrist blade! Alice realized that she had a chance after all. She'd completely forgotten about her wrist blade.

Getting ready to slit the bandit's throat with her wrist blade, Alice suddenly saw the bandits nearby moving to a better position as Ryan stood up and strode towards the truck, talking over his shoulder towards Mikey, who just joined the group at the bonfire.

Suddenly a gunshot rang out and Ryan dodged to the side, his back to the front brush guard of the truck as he started giving the assembled group the orders to organize themselves for a defense.

"Katie, take the left! Mikey, Chase, LJ, take the right! Everyone else, get all the others ready! Go go go!" His voice boomed out from the front of the truck as the bandit inside with Alice glared at her lividly.

"I said no funny business!" He snarled as he reached for his knife.

Taking her chance, Alice grabbed him by the throat herself and extended her wrist blade right into his flesh, silencing his growl of frustration.

Scrambling out of the truck, Alice grabbed the first weapon from the back of the truck she touched: Ryan's G36K.

Without even a second to put it back, she swung it around into her grasp and peered through the integrated tactical sight, firing at a pair of bandits that she saw across the camp.

Ryan started letting off bolts of electricity from the other side of the truck, moving towards the truck to grab one of his guns. But as he reached over the side of the truckbed, he was tackled to the ground by several bandits at once. He let out a rage filled snarl that sounded almost exactly like that of an angry guard dog.

The moment that Alice heard the snarl, she spun around on her heel and dropped to her knees, scanning under the truck for what she thought was a dog. What she saw though, was the exact moment where one of the bandits slashed Ryan's throat wide open in a burst of dark red blood.

Alice's face changed from calm coolness to fiery fury in an instant. She'd lost Ryan once already, she wasn't going to lose him again! She instantly fired his assault rifle at the still crouched bandits, killing them almost instantly in a hail of bullets.

Crawling under the truck towards Ryan, she shoved the dead bandits aside and lifted his head, running her fingers along the side of his neck in search of a pulse. After a few heartwrenching seconds, she felt a weak one in his jugular and felt tears stinging her eyes.

He was still alive.

Katie was busy fighting off several more of the bandits, using the bonfire to her advantage. She had her back turned to Alice, who suddenly felt a hand grab her arm.

Getting ready to lash out, she realized at that moment that the grip style wasn't from over her... it was from Ryan.

"Leave me. I'll be alright." He said over the scattered gunfire and roar of flames. "Finish them off, I'll be right behind you." He reached into one of his vest's pouches and pressed a taped pair of fully loaded magazines for his G36K into her hand.

She took the ammo, and reloaded the gun, returning the single empty clip to him as he smiled at her, his eyes full of trust.

Rising to her feet, she started to stride out into the open, which caught the attention of over a dozen bandits, one of whom was wearing metal armour on his arms and a white hockey mask over his face.

Without even batting an eye, she aimed at his face, and fired a round right through his left eye, then fired at each of the other bandits in rapid succession.

Within a minute, more bandits were being drawn to her seemingly unprotected position in the center of the camp, She emptied the first magazine, then pulled it free, flipped it around to load the second one into the breach, and rammed it inside.

The moment that the ejection port slid closed with a brisk click, she directed her gaze towards the truck, spotting Ryan rising to his feet, his eyes shining like beacons against his black attire.

A bullet whizzed past her face, grazing her cheek, and the sudden sting of pain snapped her back to reality.

With a grunt she threw the assault rifle towards Ryan, and guided it to him with her Telekinesis. He caught it with one hand, and fired at the very bandit that grazed Alice's face with a single bullet.

However, his gunshot was the very last one to be fired, and it echoed around the camp with a ringing finality as he rested the rifle on his shoulder casually.

"All clear! Check for wounded and any fatalities!" Claire's voice called out from somewhere behind the tanker truck.

Immediately Alice sprinted towards Ryan, and forced him to drop his rifle as she thundered into him, tightly hugging him.

"Tell me you're okay? I saw them..." Alice began, her voice full of worried panic, but she faltered as his eyes locked onto her face.

"I can't." He stated point blank.

"What?" Alice asked, confused at his reply.

"I can't talk anymore." He responded, indicating his blood covered throat with his hand.

"I don't understand..." Alice whispered. How was he telling her this if he couldn't speak?

"Tell me this... How do you hear me?" Ryan asked, his eyes completely serious, despite the strange question.

Alice replayed the question over in her mind... wait... Mind?! Telepathy!

"In my head." Alice replied. "You're using Telepathy to talk to me!" Now it made sense! His vocal cords might have been destroyed, but not his brain!

Ryan's mask moved like he was smiling, and he gave a nod. "Exactly. But I think that only you or Katie can hear it... I think it's from the T-Virus."

Alice gave a choked laugh, her eyes stinging with tears. Even though he was now physically a mute, he could still hear his voice; sweetly confident to her ears. "We'd better let everyone else know about this... like, now." She laughed slightly.

Ryan nodded, then crouched down to retrieve his G36K, slinging it over his chest by the dangling shoulder strap. "One second, gonna grab the rest of my weapons."

Alice gave a nod as he turned and grabbed his M3 and his bow from the back of the truck, and slung them onto his back. He then followed her towards Claire, who was lining up four of the bandits on their knees, three of whom were wounded. The last one was knocked out (courtesy of Claire deadly right hook) and was sprawled out at the end of the line.

"Claire, we've got something to tell you." Alice announced as Claire reached for her Glock. "Wait. If you're going to execute them, let Ryan do it. Save the ammo."

Claire gave Ryan a glance, then nodded at Alice. "Fry the bastards, Ry. ALL of them."

He nodded and his vambrace began to spark with electricity. He grabbed the first bandit by the face, instantly electrocuting him, smoke pouring from between his fingers as the man's face began to burn.

"So what's the matter, Alice?" Claire asked as Ryan released the man, who crumpled to the ground, twitching for a few seconds before going still, his face melted beyond recognition.

"Ryan was wounded..." Alice began, trying to decide on the words to use.

"Doesn't look like it." Claire narrowed her eyes as Ryan snapped the second bandit's neck with a loud crunch.

"His throat was stabbed, but the wound healed itself... the Virus, remember." Alice explained, but stopped to watch as Ryan slit the third man's throat with both of his wrist blades at the same time.

"Go on..." Claire was warily watching Alice, trying to figure out what was not being said.

"Ryan can't talk anymore!" Alice suddenly blurted out, breaking her usual calm coolness. Even Ryan stopped to stare at her sudden exclaimation. He was standing over the unconcious bandit, as if he was about to stomp on their face.

"What?" Claire stared blankly at her, then at Ryan, then back to Alice.

"Well... he can talk... but not with his mouth..." Alice started to babble, the realization of how absurd she sounded hitting her like a ton of bricks. "He can still talk, but he uses Telepathy...er... he talks with his mind... but we think it's only because of the T-Virus... so only me and Katie can hear when he talks..."

Claire turned to Ryan for confirmation, her eyebrow raised. He gave a nod and slammed his foot down on the bandit's face, destroying it almost instantly.

"Try it on me." Claire ordered, her face as serious as her tone. "Tell me what type of weapon you couldn't use in that computer game you played with Mikey."

Ryan's gaze was locked onto Claire for several seconds, but Claire's expression remained expectantly waiting for his voice to sound in her mind.

"Tell Alice... I can't hear anything." Claire said after a few more seconds.

"The fire sword. The minions were fireproof." Ryan's voice instantly sounded in Alice's head. She turned to Claire and repeated his words.

"Shit... This is going to take some getting used to. Okay... from now on, you go EVERYWHERE with Alice. Never leave her side... at least until we can figure out the range of this... Telepathy crap." Claire ordered Ryan, who gave a nod to show he understood.

"Alice..." Claire turned towards her with a serious expression. "You're his voice for everyone else now... We can't hear him, only you and Katie can."

Alice gave a sigh. She'd forgotten that Katie didn't know yet... Shit.

Honing in on her T-Virus aura, Alice located Katie at the ambulance, which struck Alice as unusual. Her instincts started to prickle uncomfortably, and she beckoned for Ryan to follow as she started to run across the camp towards to small group of wounded people.

They heard her approach and parted for her to slowly approach the partially closed rear doors of the ambulance.

Dread rose in her throat as she pulled the door open, revealing Katie sitting with several bloody spots on her torso and one on her arm.

"Katie!" Alice called out, hauling the doors wide open, but she faltered when Katie turned to face them, her eyes puffy and red. She'd been crying.

Instantly wrapping her arms around Katie's shoulder, she pulled Katie's head to her chest.

Standing in the embrace for several seconds, she opened her eyes and saw that someone else was in the ambulance's gurney...

It was K-Mart.

"What happened?" Ryan's asked, stepping closer to K-Mart, his eyes full of concern.

"What happened to K-Mart?" Alice asked into Katie's ear, which made them separate.

"She was shot in the stomach and shoulder. I've done what I can, but she's not going to be able to fight anything for a few weeks... at the very least." Betty came around the side of the vehicle, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.

"Are the bullets still in her body?" Ryan asked Alice, who repeated the question directly to Betty as if it was her own.

"The shoulder passed right through... but the stomach one didn't... I can't get it out unless I can get an X-ray to locate it." Betty replied, shaking her head in defeat.

"I have an idea." Ryan said as he glanced at K-Mart's pale face, unconcious from the shock her body sustained.

"Ryan has an idea..." Alice explained, then glanced at Ryan with a 'what the hell are you doing?' expression on her face.

"I can sense the bullet's location... and it seems I can control magnetism in a way." Ryan replied, holding up his hand, which had a scalpel firmly adhered, defying gravity's pull as he moved his hand around in a circle.

"I know where this is going..." Alice shook her head. "But I can assume you'd do it on me, if I was ever shot."

Ryan's mask moved into a wide smile. "Damn right I would."

Alice moved herself and Katie out of his way as he removed his guns, bow and even his body armour from hsi body. She caught quite an eyeful of his muscled chest through the tight fitting black t-shirt he was wearing, and bit her lip. Dayum.

He handed the bow and his M3 to one of the lightly wounded survivors, and his vest and G36K to another and told Alice. "Tell these two to take my gear to the pickup truck and put it all in the back."

"He wants those in the back of the pickup truck. Can you take them there, please?" She asked aloud, and they calmly nodded, and took the gear away.

Stepping into the confined space of the ambulance, his eyes began to shine very brightly and the air around him lost the electrified buzz, only to be replaced with an odd pulsing energy.

He slowly and very gently inserted his index and fingers into the bullet wound in K-Mart's torn shirt, clearly concentrating intensly as the pulsing aura increased in intensity.

"The bullet broke into two pieces... They're easy to get, but I now need your help, Alice." Ryan's voice sounded in her head and she quickly nodded. "Focus your Telekinesis in between my index and middle fingers... now."

Alice focused on the exact spot, and she felt the familiar solid shape of a bullet. She nodded to give confirmation that she had it in her mental grip.

"Now, slowly start to move it straight upwards. I'm holding the bullet's path open." Ryan instructed, and she slowly began to remove the first chunk of the bullet.

With excrutiating slowness the bullet fragment slid out of the gap between Ryan's fingers, and floated into the air in front of Alice's face. She plucked it out of the air and held it in her hand as she waited for Ryan to locate the other fragment.

The seconds dragged by as he focused on his search. To Betty, Katie, Alice and the onlooking survivors, his hand was seemingly completely stationary.

"Got it. Same strategy... but this piece is smaller... ready?" Ryan relayed his successful search to Alice.

"Yes." Alice replied as she also found the very tiny tip of the bullet, beginning to remove it in the same fashion as the other piece.

Ryan gave a small grunt, which mildly startled Alice. Apparently he could make SOME noises... just not actual speech. She refocused on her task, and withdrew the other piece of the bullet.

Once it came into view, she noticed that it was very sharp. This piece would have caused severe damage had it been left in K-Mart's body.

Taking the two pieces in each hand, Alice waited for Ryan to remove his fingers from K-Mart's wound.

"Rebind the dressing, she's going to be alright." Ryan said to Alice as he took the broken bullet from her hands and carefully reattached them together, slotting the small sliver like fragment into the missing chunk of the bullet.

He turned to Katie and locked eyes with her. "Can you hear me speaking, Katie?"

She nodded. "Everything you said to Alice, I heard. Why?" She asked, confused.

"I can no longer talk with my mouth. I was stabbed in the throat during the raid, but now I can talk to you and Alice with Telepathy... with my mind. Sadly, no one else can hear me." Ryan explained. He held up the reassembled bullet. "Can you fuse these back together?"

She took the bullet out of his hand and clenched it in her fist. Her yellow eye began to glow red, then after smoke began to seep out of her fingers, she stopped. Her eye faded back to yellow and she held out her hand.

Ryan took the newly repaired bullet and began to closely examine the design.

"This is just a 9mm pistol bullet... nothing special." He said, more to himself than towards Alice or Katie, though they both heard it regardless.

He stepped out of the back of the ambulance, then turned to Alice. "I'll be in the truck. Claire's going to want to get moving after the raid. Let everyone know to pack up."


	3. Chapter 3

As the camp scrambled with packing up, Alice and Katie calmly went to the pickup truck where Ryan was leaning into the back door. Alice guessed that he was moving some of the stuff in the back seat so he could join them, instead of his former place of riding with Mikey in the news van.

"Ryan, ready to go?" Alice asked, walking around the front of the truck to the driver side. Even though Katie usually drove, it wasn't unusual for Alice to take the wheel. In fact, she'd completely forgotten about her motorbike, hidden away inside the M35.

"Yeah, let's get going." Ryan replied as he climbed into the back seat, directly behind the passenger seat. He closed the door and rested his head against the headrest.

The rest of the convoy fired up their engines, and Alice turned the key, getting ready to drive along behind Claire's Hummer, as usual.

However, just as she was about to drive forward, she heard a snarling sound... the exact same one she'd heard before she saw Ryan getting stabbed. She turned around and checked the back of the truck... nothing was there.

"Something wrong Alice?" Katie asked as she climbed into her seat beside her.

"I've heard a strange kinda growl twice now. I can't figure out what the fuck it is." Alice replied, turning forward and stepping on the gas pedal, falling into position behind Claire's Hummer. She remembered that K-Mart usually rode with Claire... but K-Mart was in the back of the ambulance right now. She wondered if Claire was lonely, driving alone for the first time?

"That growling is me." Ryan's voice stated, sounding slightly amused. "It's one of the few sounds I can actually make."

"What else can you do?" Alice asked, resting her arm on the bottom of her window.

Ryan lifted his head from the headrest and chuckled. Well, that was a sound... Alice thought to herself.

"I can mostly growl, snarl, laugh, and hiss. Beyond that, nothing comes out." Ryan's voice concluded after he attempted each of the sounds.

"Well, that's a start." Alice smiled. "Maybe we can work out what each of them means, so others can at least get the basic message you're saying."

"Not really, Alice." Katie stated. "The sounds are hard to assign a meaning to, because they're mostly anger related sounds. If someone misunderstands them, then they take it as a hostile response."

"That is a good point. But that doesn't mean I can't learn sign language or morse code... actually... No... I already know morse code." Ryan said as he reached across the seat to take his G36K.

Alice glanced in the rearview mirror at that moment and noticed that Ryan had looted the metal shoulder armour from the bandit that wore the hockey mask during the raid. Surprisingly though, he only wore it on one arm - The arm with is metal vambrace, giving him a completely metal plated arm from his shoulder down to his elbow, plus his vambrace. His other arm had several magazine pouches strapped to his upper arm. His leather bracer had been seemingly modifed to hold two long rows of shotgun shells, held in place by what appeared to be loops of tough leather.

"Nice armour design." Alice commented with a smirk.

"Thank you. It seemed to make sense to actually carry ammo for my Beretta, and relocate my shotgun shells to a more accessible part of my body." Ryan replied, reaching behind his back and producing an M92f Beretta pistol that neither of them had ever seen before.

"Since when have you had that pistol?" Alice asked, curious, but also surprised. She'd never seen it on his body, nor in actual use. She wondered where he actually kept it hidden as well.

"I had it long before I joined the convoy. I just rarely ever take it out, partly because of one of Claire's gun rules, but also because I use it as a last resort. If I have absolutely no more ammo, and I NEED to use a gun, then I'll pull this out. But, usually when a situation like that arises, I use my wrist blade, or someone helped me escape." Ryan explained as he released the magazine for the Beretta and checked inside. He rammed it back inside and checked the breach before returning it to his back.

"Where do you even hide the thing?" Alice asked.

"Inside the back of my pants." Ryan replied, which made Katie giggle.

"What's so funny, Katie?" Alice glanced at her in confusion. What was so funny about keeping his gun in the back of his waistband?

"So... you're saying you literally pull that pistol out of your ass?" Katie joked, which earned a small smile from Ryan, and a scoff from Alice.

"Yes, Katie. I made sure to slide it down my ass crack every time I put it back." Ryan's voice countered sarcastically. "No, I actually have a concealed-carry holster for it." He added seriously, glancing at his G36K in his arms. Alice glanced at him in the rearview mirror and noticed that his eyes had a strange glint in his eyes as he looked first as his rifle, then at his M3 for several quick repetitions. He was thinking of SOMETHING for the two guns... She just had no idea what.

"Alice..." Ryan's voice sounded low and thoughtful, which confirmed Alice's theory that he was planning something. "Where is your shotgun?"

Alice used her Telekinesis to retrieve it from beneath the back seat, and presented it to him. He took it from the air and examined it intently before positioning it underneath the barrel of his G36K in the same way a grenade launcher would be attached.

"Hmmm... might need to... yeah. This will be perfect." Ryan's voice seemed to be more towards himself than Alice.

"What the hell are you planning, Ry?" Alice glanced at him as Claire turned a corner ahead of them, making Alice follow suit.

"My M3 isn't the right size. I was planning on attaching your M37 to the underbarrel rail on my G36K... as an undermounted shotgun." Ryan replied. "Want to trade shotguns?"

Katie and Alice's jaws both dropped. He was WILLINGLY giving up his beloved and pristine M3... for Alice's old and dirty M37?!

"You sure about that? It's your M3 we're talking about here."

"First of all, Alice..." Ryan began, looking up from his guns. "If I used my M3 for this idea, I would have to remove the stock, and shorten both the barrel and the shell tube by at least a foot and a half. However..." He tapped the M37 with his index finger. "All I would have to do for your M37 is to reverse-engineer an attachment rail to the top of the chassis, then combine them together."

"Well, it's fine with me. Just do me a favour and reload it?" Alice said as Claire's voice sounded over the radio.

"There's a big horde on the road ahead of us, Ryan, Katie... I want you two to go ahead of me and fry them. Everyone else, slow down until they finish."

"Copy that, Claire." Alice raised her radio after Ryan and Katie gave their nods of acknowledgement. They both leaned out of opposite windows and readied their respective powers: Katie's palms were flickering with fireballs while Ryan's metal clad right arm crackled and sparked with blue-white electricity. Both of them were concentrating intensely as Alice drove them past Claire's Hummer and towards a sizable horde of infected that spanned quite a large swath of the road.

With a dull roar, Katie began hurling a volley of fireballs into the center of the horde, which exploded violently upon impact.

Ryan however, was still waiting as Alice continued to drive them forward, already enshrouding the truck with a Telekinetic shield in case she had to ram her way through.

Why isn't he attacking them yet? She wondered to herself. He has a clear shot at them... right?

Suddenly with a sizzling crackle, Ryan directed an absolutely massive lightning bolt into the crowd, causing several infected to shudder and twitch before causing their heads to burst into bloody mist.

But that didn't stop there:The lightning bolt arched between the zombies, then the next second, several other zombies - some of which were aflame from Katiee's onslaught - also had their heads explode from electrical overload... then more... and more, until absolutely none of them were left standing... or with their heads still attached for that matter.

Returning to his seat in silence, Alice noticed that he was slightly out of breath from that shocking display. Before she could even give her compliments to his display, he promptly fell across the seats on his side with a groan.

"Ryan!" Alice and Katie called his name as Alice slowed the truck to a halt. They deduced after a few seconds that the lightning he'd done drained his stamina, and he'd passed out.

Relaxing, Alice called Claire over the radio. "We're done up here... but Ryan just passed out."

"Let me know when he's awake." Claire replied as she drove past them.

Alice quickly shifted back to driving behind Claire for several minutes, until Ryan gave a noise from the back seat, clearly awake again.

"Fuck, you almost gave us heart attacks! How are you feeling, Ryan?" Alice commented with a glance in the rearview mirror at him as he blinked a few times to clear his vision.

"I feel like shit, to be dead honest. All that power took a lot out of me." Ryan's voice replied, sounding slightly tired.

"At least you're awake." Alice sighed, then informed Claire over the radio that he was finally awake.

"Good. Tell him to be careful next time he does that."

Ryan gave a chuckle as he nodded. Alice smirked and replied. "He heard you."

Claire said nothing more, and the convoy continued to drive in silence for a few hours until Claire signalled to pull over at the side of the road.

Stepping out of the truck with his G36K at the ready, Ryan was on high alert for some reason, scanning the surroundings with his brow furrowed. Alice noticed his tension and she rested her new M3 on her shoulder as she returned from speaking with Claire.

"Claire said we're just taking a quick break. We'll be back on the move in ten minutes." Alice announced to him, while he spared her a momentary glance to show he'd heard her. "So why are you so tense?"

"Can't you feel it? There is something about this area..." Ryan replied, his voice sounding low and cautious in her head. "It doesn't feel safe to be here."

"Is it from the T-Virus?" Alice asked, keeping her voice down as a few other survivors walked past them.

"No... Something else. I can't quite figure out the reason nor the source. We have to leave. Now." Ryan replied, and Alice heard him click off his rifle's safety to drive his point home.

Alice gave him a glance, and could tell that underneath his mask he was scowling heavily. But then it hit her like a ton of bricks... Literally.

With a grunt of pain, Alice was knocked off her feet to the ground, her M3 falling from her grasp and clattering across the ground as blood began to spread across her shoulder.

"SNIPER!" Alice yelled, grabbing her shoulder as Ryan instantly redirected his rifle in the direction the shot came from, and aimed with a snarl rising in his throat.

The entire convoy scrambled for cover as Ryan crouched down and held out his arm for her to grab.

"I'm getting you out of the open. Take my hand." Ryan's voice called through her haze of pain. She grabbed his elbow with her good arm and allowed him to drag her towards the pickup.

Placing his hand on her cheek, Ryan said. "When you're ready, I'll bring you the M3."

Giving him a smile, she nodded and glanced at her shoulder. "You might need to play doctor on me... the bullet feels like it shattered."

In the moment before Ryan stood up, Alice could have sworn that his yellow eyes suddenly changed to slit pupils, like a dragon. They'd completely lost their usual sparkling glow.

He was PISSED.

With careful and precise aim, Ryan fired off into the distance, then tugged his mask down and whistled towards Katie, who was taking cover beside Claire behind the Hummer.

"Katie, run to the M35 and grab the silver briefcase on the left side. I'll cover you." He broadcast to her, which she replied with a nod.

"Ready!" Katie called, gripping her MP7 with both hands.

"Go!" He replied, firing at several small shapes that he could tell were hidden sniper nests far off in the desert sands.

Katie sprinted as fast as she coud towards the big cargo truck, and hauled herself into the back, quickly locating the briefcase he'd mentioned. She grabbed it with her free hand and returned to the pickup truck, sliding to the ground beside Alice, who raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar case.

"Unlock it, and slide it over to me." Ryan broadcast to the pair, and continued to pick off the half dozen sniper nests he could see with the mid range optic that was integrated into his G36K.

Unlatching the case, Katie gave it a hefty kick and caused it to skitter across the road before comming to a halt beside him.

Dropping to his stomach, Ryan opened the case and began to pull out a disassembled sniper rifle. He put it together in less than forty seconds, rammed a loaded magazine inside and pulled the bolt. He flipped the lens caps open and peered down the scope.

For a moment, nothing happened. Ryan wasn't firing and neither were the surviving snipers... But then Ryan fired. The gunshot blasted up a small dust cloud in front of him, and it didn't take a genius to realize that his rifle was of a massive calibre.

Four shots later, Ryan breathed an audible sigh as he turned to Claire nearby and gave a thumbs up to signal the all clear.

"Are they dead, Ryan?!" Claire called and he nodded as he stood up with the massive rifle in his hands.

"Are there anyone that was wounded?" Claire asked, placing her hand on his shoulder at the moment that Ryan broadcast to Alice. "Alice... How is your shoulder?"

With a gasp, Claire removed her hand and took a step back. She could have sworn she heard him talk. He gave her a raised eyebrow as she experimentally reach out to touch him again.

"Say something else, Ryan. Say my name." She said as she gingerly touched his hand.

"Claire Redfield?" Ryan broadcast, just like how he would if he was communicating with Alice or Katie.

"Holy shit! I heard you! I swear I just heard you!" Claire gawked at Ryan, then at her hand, then realized that there was finally a way for him to talk again. "I can hear you... in my head, whenever I touch you. Say a number!"

"Eleven."

Claire exhaled in relief. "You said eleven, right?" He nodded, then pointed towards the distant sniper dens. "Eleven snipers. There's something odd about that. Wait here, I'll go check it out with Katie."

Handing her the sniper rifle, Ryan grabbed the fallen M3 from the ground as he returned to Katie and Alice. He returned the shotgun and must have explained his intentions to Katie and Alice - Since he didn't need direct contact for them to hear him - and lead Katie out into the desert towards the dens.

"Claire." Alice called to Claire, who was numbly staring at her very numb hand (courtesy of Ryan's electrified body.)

"Yeah?" She replied, taking her gaze away from her hand. She strode over to Alice, who had remained seated with her back against the pickup truck's tire. He M3 was laid across her lap, blood still oozing down her shirt. "Oh, shit. C'mon, let's get you to Betty."

Taking Alice's good arm, she put it over her shoulder lead her to the ambulance, where Betty gretted her with a smile and a loaded syringe of painkillers. Alice noticibly grimaced.

"First time takng a bullet?" She teased as she shooed Claire away.

Alice shook her head. "No. I just fucking hate needles."

**A/N: Ryan's metal armour becomes important later on, and that sniper rifle he used is indeed a .50 cal :P**


	4. Chapter 4

Ryan and Katie kept their guns at the ready, and Ryan's entire right arm was crackling with electricity as they neared a cluster of camoflauged foxholes.

"Grab the guns, ammo and their gear. I'll check around for why the hell they're even camped here in the first place." Ryan said as he lowered his rifle.

Katie got to work, gathering from the bodies until she'd gathered everything into one of their dufflebags and hauled it onto her shoulder. She glanced at Ryan, who was searching through a nearby body's pockets, his back turned to her.

"Find anything?" Katie asked, just as he stood up. He turned and held up a folded piece of paper.

"This is the only thing I found that was unusual." Ryan replied as he opened the paper. "Nevermind, it's just a useless drawing." He tossed it aside and followed Katie back to the vehicles, all of which were running as they arrived.

"How's Alice doing?" Katie asked Claire as they approached.

"Betty patched her up for now. She's in your truck." Claire replied as she opened the door of the Hummer. "Let's get out of here."

Ryan and Katie tossed the dufflebag into the back of the pickup truck, then Ryan climbed into the driver seat, with Alice sitting in the passenger seat, her eyes closed and her shoulder heavily bandaged. Katie hopped into the back and started to sharpen her wrist blade.

"Betty said the bullet's intact, but it's still stuck in my arm. You're gonna have to use that magnetism thing you did for K-Mart once we stop for lunch." Alice spoke up as Ryan started to drive along behind Claire's Hummer.

"It'll be easier than when I did it on K-Mart since the bullet is larger." Ryan replied, scanning the road ahead of them.

"Thanks, babe." Alice sighed, leaning her head back.

Katie's rythmic sharpening faltered for a fraction of a second at Alice's comment, but thankfully neither of them noticed.

A few hours later, Claire called for Mikey to find a place to stop for lunch. A minute later, Mikey began to relay directions towards a motel. Ryan followed behind Claire until she pulled to a halt in front of the motel. The rest of the convoy stopped and Alice awoke very suddenly.

"I sense something." She stated as she unlocked her door. "Ryan, get this bullet out of my arm... quickly."

Ryan instantly climbed out of the truck and slung his rifle across his chest as he stepped closer towards her.

"Ready?" He asked, tearing the bandages away from her arm.

"Yeah, just tell me when to start removing it." Alice gritted her teeth.

Ryan began to concentrate on the metal inside her arm, then gently slid his fingers inside the wound. Alice tensed, but after a moment, remembered to relax so he could work.

"This is going to hurt." Ryan explained as he suddenly pinched his fingers together and pulled the bullet out roughly.

Alice grunted in pain, clenching her eyes together as tears welled up.

"Thanks for the warning." Alice said sarcastically, grabbing her M3 from the truck.

"Now... What is it that you sensed?" Katie asked after Ryan tossed the bloody bullet aside.

"T-Virus." Alice replied as Claire approached them.

"Find it, and destroy it." Claire ordered, cradling an M4 in her arms.

Alice instantly turned towards the motel and followed her senses into the lobby, with Ryan and Katie at her side.

"I sense it now. It's something different than usual zombies." Katie whispered, raising her MP7 while Ryan aimed his G36K behind the front desk.

"Wait." Alice held out her hand across Katie's chest, stopping her in her tracks. "It's moving this way."

Katie froze as the sound of movement down the nearest hallway reached their ears.

"Ryan, this way." Alice whispered, listening as the thing's dragging footsteps started to approach them.

Ryan aimed his rifle down the hall, then saw movement down the hall's shadowy interior. It was humanoid, but moved with a very jerky and erratic gait. Then they all heard the growling.

"Back away slowly, keep quiet. We need more room to maneuver." Ryan broadcast to them both, placing his left hand on Katie's shoulder with a serious look at Alice.

They both caught the seriousness in his words, and slowly backed out of the lobby until Claire approached them.

"What's wrong?" She demanded, but Alice put her fingers to her lips and indicated Ryan.

"Hand." Claire ordered quietly, extending her left hand to Ryan.

Taking her hand, he instantly began to explain. "That thing inside the lobby is a B.O.W nicknamed 'Iron Maiden' according to the White Queen. She said that they regenerate so quickly, they're nearly impossible to kill... However, they have parasitic leeches in their bodies, that when destroyed, prevents the regeneration."

"How do we kill the leeches?" Claire asked quietly.

"Bullets. But they can only be seen with thermal optics." Ryan replied, which made Katie look up.

"I can see in the thermal spectrum." Katie said as both of her eyes began to glow bright red.

"Then you're going to have to track the leeches and tell us where to shoot." Ryan nodded as Claire released his hand.

"It's coming this way. And I've never heard of the Iron Maiden B.O.W before." Alice aimed her M3 into the lobby as the Iron Maiden came into view.

Dark grey skin, spikes covering its entire body, and a mouth of massive teeth, the Iron Maiden shuddered and jerked its way outside.

"Katie's going to call out that thing's weak spots. Everyone hold fire unless she says to." Claire ordered into her radio.

Katie's thermal vision locked on several intense heat sources within the Maiden's torso: Four in total.

"Left shoulder, Ryan." Katie called out, and Ryan instantly activated the laser sight mounted on the side of his rifle, and aimed at the spot.

"Now!" Katie nodded, and Ryan fired a single shot.

Staggering back a few steps, the Maiden's body began to swell in size. It let out a snarl to rival one of Ryan's.

"Claire, heart." Katie said to Claire, who fired a quick burst. "Too high, aim down by two inches."

Claire fired again, and caused it to stagger again, further increasing in size.

Katie scanned the Maiden again, and counted two remaining leeches. She fired into the Maiden's lower leech, and made it stumble forward and swell up drastically. But the spikes on its body extended out of its body to resemble a sea urchin.

"Get back!" Claire yelled, and everyone except Ryan backed away. He remained stationary, only ten feet away from the spike riddled Maiden.

"Ryan! Left hip!" Katie called, unable to take the shot herself due to the swollen mass of flesh.

Ryan pulled the trigger of his rifle, but it misfired. The Maiden began to approach him, and he was forced to back away, pulling out his Beretta and firing several rounds into its left hip.

With a rumbling noise, the Maiden began a stumbling run towards him, ballooning in size.

Alice extended her hand, enveloping him in her telekinetic grasp, violently wrenching him to the side as the Maiden exploded into a spiky cloud of blood.

Alice dropped behind a concrete barrier while the spikes stopped flying around. Once it was safe, she vaulted over to see Ryan standing upright with a frown on his face as he ejected the fouled round from his rifle.

"I'm alright. Thanks for the save." Ryan said when he realized that it was Alice beside him.

"Did you know it would explode like that?" Alice asked as he reloaded his rifle.

"No, I didn't. The White Queen never gave me that detail."

"Well, now we know if we ever fight another one." Alice smiled. "C'mon, let's get some food. And while we do eat... you can tell me everything that the White Queen told you about the B.O.W's."

Minutes later, Alice and Ryan were leaning against the side of the pickup truck, a can of beans in their hands as Alice asked questions about each individual B.O.W that she knew of since she'd last checked Umbrella's databases.

"What about the Web Spinner? Did the White Queen ever mention those?" Alice asked as she shoved her spoon back into her beans, staring at Ryan as he ate. Unlike her, he was capable of eating AND talking at the same time, so his golden gaze was riveted on the beans in his grasp.

"Nope. They weren't even in the archives I checked." Ryan replied, taking another mouthful of beans and shoveling them into his mouth. "Let me guess... they're based on spiders, huh?"

"Yeah, they are. Big bastards, about five or six feet in diameter, and maybe three feet in height. Most of them are tarantulas, but a few were manufactured by Umbrella from Black Widow spiders." Alice explained. "Haven't encountered one myself, to be honest. I just know they exist."

"Y'know..." Ryan looked up at her with a thoughtful expression on his unmasked face. He'd removed his face mask so he could eat, which left his heavily scarred throat open for view. Alice's gaze was locked onto the mass of scar tissue for a brief second, then she pulled her gaze to lock with his.

"What?" Alice asked, having misheard what he just said entirely.

"Y'know I'm not a genius..." Ryan repeated. "But I'm not retarded either." Alice gave him a confused look. "There's something other than B.O.W's on your mind... isn't there, Itoshii?"

"What did you just call me?" Alice shot him a suspicious glare out of the corner of her eye.

"Itoshii. Japanese, it means 'darling.'" Ryan explained, giving her a warm smile. "Or would you rather me call you Alice-senpai?" He teased, his eyes glittering with humour.

"Itoshii, huh? I like that... Sparky." Alice smiled as well, then gave him a kiss... just as Claire walked past them.

"Ahem." Claire cleared her throat pointedly, making Alice step back from Ryan. "Remember what I said?"

Alice and Ryan gave her a nod. They both knew, but that didn't mean they liked it.

"I'll be watching you two..." Claire reminded them as she walked away, leaving Ryan to stare at her back, a rumbling snarl rising in his throat.

"Calm down. This just means we have to do it behind her back." Alice said in a serious tone. "This isn't even worth fighting against."

"We could just leave." Ryan replied in a casual tone. Alice instantly turned to stare at him with a shocked expression on her face.

"Where did that come from?" Alice demanded, tightly gripping her nearly empty can.

"The convoy. We could just leave... get away from this stupid rule. We could manage on our own..." Ryan replied, still sounding extremely casual about leaving the convoy behind.

"No. We couldn't. What about Katie? Do you think she could just get up and leave the only friendly group of people she's ever known? All over one small rule?! Ryan, what's gotten into you? I've known you long enough to realize that this line of thinking is..." Alice suddenly paused, looking almost like she'd been hurt. "It's so different... This is not like you. And it actually kinda scares me that you would consider just leaving like that."

Ryan's hard glare softened at the concern in Alice's voice, and he actually couldn't find any words. He was utterly speechless that she cared about him that much.

"I... I... Uh..." Ryan began, but he faltered when he saw Claire ordering everyone back into the vehicles to start driving again. "I think you should drive this time." He managed to form a sentence before tossing his empty bean can aside. He climbed into the truck and pulled his fedora off his head, then drew up his hood and mask.

Katie joined them in the truck a minute later, climbing into the passenger seat, still eating a can of what appeared to be some type of soup. Alice got in beside her, twirling her spoon between her fingers as she put the truck into gear and began to follow behind Claire.

"Why are you two being so serious? Did something happen?" Katie asked between spoonfuls of her soup.

"Nothing important. Why do you ask?" Alice replied, glancing in the rearview mirror at Ryan. However, all she could see of his face was a small sliver of his nose due to the low angle of his hood. He also had his arms crossed across his chest moodily.

"Because Ryan is clearly pissed off, and you look like you're about to cry." Katie replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Wow. That's being pretty blunt, Katie." Ryan suddenly spoke up. "But I'm not pissed off, to be honest. I'm just thinking over something Claire told me."

"Then why does Alice look like she is going to cry?" Katie demanded, but Alice smiled and stopped twirling her spoon. She dipped it into Katie's soup suddenly, much to Katie's protest. "Hey! Didn't you eat yet?!"

"I did, yes. And I'm not crying in the way you think. I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes." Alice lied to Katie, taking her stolen spoonful of soup and sliding it into her mouth. "Don't worry though, when it comes down to it... I don't get sad... I get mad."


	5. Chapter 5

That evening, after setting up camp for the night in an empty warehouse - made secure by Alice and Katie first - Claire sought out Ryan and pulled him upstairs into an upper office, closing the door behind them so they could talk in privacy.

"Hand." Claire ordered, holding out her hand so that she could hear his responses.

Grasping her offered hand, Ryan immediately asked. "Is this about me and Alice kissing each other during the lunch break?"

"Actually, no it's not about that." Claire shook her head. "No, it's about the Iron Maiden."

"Oh?" Ryan's curiosity was piqued, and his golden gaze was locked onto Claire's face.

"I think that something else, like the Iron Maiden, or something bigger is eventually going to attack us. I just want to have you, Alice and Katie at the ready, in case something bigger DOES actually show up. We're all relying on you three... Especially you, Ryan."

"Why me? Why am I the favourite one?" Ryans eyes narrowed, and a frown formed behind his mask.

"Because you know about the B.O.W's from that White Queen person. You have an edge over them, since you know their weaknesses and how they attack." Claire explained, "You're also better suited for dealing with the Infected."

"Explain." Ryan was beginning to wonder why Claire was telling her this. It was true that he was knowledgible about various B.O.W's, but Alice's knowledge of them was easily superior to his own.

"What is more terrifying for someone like me, or K-Mart, or Mikey... a flaming zombie... or one that is being electrocuted?" Claire asked with a stern stare.

"The flaming one... wait! Are you saying that Katie isn't suited for combat?" Ryan quickly noticed the comparisons, and a snarl began to rise in his throat.

"That is NOT what I am saying. What I am saying is that you are the strongest out of the three of you." Claire corrected herself, but that made Ryan even more angry.

"So now you think that Katie and Alice are weak?" Ryan's voice became low and dangerous inside Claire's head, and his grip tightened on her hand.

"No! Ryan, this is hard to say... I didn't mean that at all!" Claire apologized right away, but Ryan released her hand, letting several sparks of electricity travel along his armoured arm before he gestured for her to take his hand again.

"Get some sleep. I'll be outside the warehouse all night on watch. Tell Alice to come get me in the morning after you wake up." Ryan explained before releasing Claire's hand again and walking towards the door, his angry expression hidden by his mask and hood.

"Fine. But just so you know..." Claire spoke up, making him stop with his hand on the doorknob. "What I was trying to say didn't actually come out the way I wanted it to."

Ryan gave a sigh, then opened the door to leave. He walked back downstairs, then out of the highly defensible doorway they'd used to enter the warehouse, and out into the shadowy alleyway between the warehouse itself and a sealed (checked for Infected by Alice) garage.

Walking around the building, Ryan eventually located the roof access ladder that lead to the roof, which gave him a view of the entire compound where they were staying that night. He crouched down beside a ventilation unit and began to hum a simple five note tune to himself, preparing for the long and solitary hours ahead of him.

"I thought that was you I heard."

Ryan instantly went for his G36K hanging across his chest, but a pair of arms snaked themselves around his body and deftly unclipped his rifle from the strap, letting it fall to the roof with a dull clunk.

Ryan turned to see who it was that had him in their grasp, and realized that it was just Alice. He relaxed when he noticed that she had clearly just gotten up since she wasn't wearing any of her gear.

"What was that tune, Itoshii?" Alice smiled at him before giving him a small kiss directly on his mask.

"I made it up. It's nothing special, just to occupy myself while I'm keeping watch." Ryan replied, enjoying the close embrace with Alice after the tense talk with Claire. It felt good... natural... perfect.

"Teach it to me." Alice smiled, trying to imitate the notes she'd heard from him. "Like that, right?"

"Like that, yes." Ryan smiled as well, "But why would you want to learn that useless tune? It's not important to me."

"Because I like it." Alice said in a teasing voice, but then she tensed. "Did you hear that?"

Ryan concentrated for a second, then heard the distant sound of a vehicle door being closed. "Yeah. We've got company."

"I left all my gear inside. All I have is my wrist blade." Alice said as she released Ryan from her embrace.

"Take my Colts. I have an idea." Ryan indicated his dual sidearms, which up until that point, hadn't even been unholstered since he'd gotten them from his uncle's house. "Here. Put these on them as well." Ryan held out a pair of black objects from the back of his gear belt. Alice took them and realized that they were silencers.

"Silencers? I think I see what you're planning." Alice smiled as she reached down to his legs and pulled both pistols free, then attached the silencers to the barrels with her Telekinesis.

"What I'm going to do is use the darkness and my dark clothes as cover to sneak around behind them and take them out, one by one. I need you to stay up here and tell me where any stragglers are." Ryan explained as he began to deposit his M37 and his Beretta on the roof, beside his G36K. "Watch over these. I won't need them."

Alice nodded and clicked the safeties off his Colts, ready to provide cover for him. "What about Katie? Shouldn't she be ready in case any of them get past us?"

"They won't." Ryan replied flatly before dashing towards the ladder and smoothly slid down, vanishing into the shadows almost instantly.

Alice didn't need to track him with her eyes, since she could sense exactly where he was from his T-Virus aura. But she kept herself low and hidden from sight, watching as a group of black clad figures appeared outside the chainlink fence that surrounded the compound.

She heard the distinctive sound of bolt cutters being used to rip open the fence, and watched as they opened a fairly wide hole in the fence. Then she noticed that Ryan was hidden a few feet away, behind a piece of concrete barrier, signalling to her with military hand gestures.

'Seven hostiles... cover me... flanking left... on my signal.'

"Alice, can you hear me from this far away? Try to talk to me with Telepathy." Ryan spoke slowly and carefully, so that Alice could understand the context of his words if his Telepathy did indeed have a limited range.

Alice heard him loud and clear, so after a moment of concentration, tried to reply. "Can you hear me now, Ryan? Let me know if I'm failing at this."

"Well done. Now that we can communicate, guide me to any of these dumbasses that I can take out in stealth." Ryan smiled happily at Alice's successful mastery of Telepathy.

"Okay. I see that one of them is on their own, at the back of the group. The one with the shotgun. Can you see him?" Alice peered around the ventilation unit, her fingers flexing on the oddly ergonomic grips of Ryan's Colts.

"Got it. Taking them out... Now!" Ryan smiled cruelly as he extended both his wrist blades and thrust them into the back of the man's head. He wrapped his arms around their torso and carefully lowered the body to the ground, to prevent any unwanted noise. "Next, Itoshii."

"Two of them are near Mikey's van. Take those ones next." Alice scanned the compound, watching as the four others split into pairs and began to search the vehicles.

Ryan stalked across the compound, just as his two targets moved out of her sight behind Mikey's van. A few seconds later, Ryan's voice sounded. "Got 'em. Where are the next ones?"

"One of the pairs just split up. They're standing near the M35 and our truck. You choose which one you want to take out first." Alice checked the positions of the intruders again, then heard movement on the ladder leading up to her position. One of them must have been hiding from the start, and was climbing up to the roof to provide overwatch, like she was doing for Ryan.

"Ryan, I've got one coming up the ladder. I'll take him out, just take out the next pair." Alice relayed as she moved to a better position seconds before the person reached the top of the ladder and hauled themself up.

"Copy that." Ryan replied, already halfway to the pair searching around the M35. "Let me know when you're safe again."

Alice smiled, her cheeks becoming slightly pink. Why did that sound really cute to her? She shook herself back to the present situation, and waited until the man was on the other side of the ventilation unit before she started to focus her Telekinesis onto his brain, crushing it almost instantly. All that was heard was a dull fleshy sound from inside his skull and he crumpled to the ground.

"I'm all clear. He's dead." Alice informed Ryan, just as he slit both of the men's throats at the M35.

"Same here. Down to the last pair. Meet me at the bottom of the ladder. I have an idea that you'll like."

"Oh? Enlighten me." Alice sounded amused as she slid down the ladder to already find him awaiting her in a nearby shadow.

"Remember how you've said I sound like a dog when I growl?" Ryan said as he quickly pulled Alice into the shadow and covered her protectively with his body. She was only wearing jeans and a white tank top, so her outfit would give away her position.

"Yes, you're my big guard puppy, Sparky." Alice teased him, keeping a close eye on the last pair of men near their truck.

"Well, let's fuck with their heads a bit." Ryan chuckled darkly. "I'm going to draw them away from the warehouse. I want you take my bow from the back of the truck, and shoot this into the air." He handed her an arrow with a very large cylindrical arrowhead.

"What will it do?" Alice asked, still using Telepathy to talk to him.

"It's a flare that I jerry rigged onto an arrow. Just pull the pin and fire it up into the air, it'll ignite like it was fired from an actual flare gun." Ryan explained, checking over his shoulder to make sure they hadn't been seen yet. "Wait until I draw them away before you grab my bow."

With that, Ryan gave her a curious expression for a second then he said. "Take my armour. You'll need it to stay hidden in the shadows."

"What about you?" Alice asked, watching as he began to take off the heavy body armour he wore.

"I'm still wearing black. They won't see me. Here." He handed her the vest, and she carefully pulled it over her head and buckled it closed. "Ready?"

Alice gave him a nod, then pulled his face closer to hers to kiss him. "Now I am." She purred.

Ryan smiled, then dashed away, leaving her to wait in silence, watching the two men searching the vehicles until she heard Ryan growling to get their attention.

"Sounds like a wild dog. Take it out so we can finish our mission." One of the men whispered to the other, who pulled out a knife and began to walk away from the truck.

"Damn it, I wanted both of them to move. Forget the flare, take him down with your wrist blade while I deal with the idiot one." Ryan's voice immediately sounded in Alice's head, and she gave a sigh before silently stalking across the shadows until she was close behind the last man.

"What's taking so long to find a fucking coyote? Where is h..." He grumbled to himself, his sentence being literally cut short when Alice reached up and slit his throat from behind.

"Ryan. He's down." Alice reported, just as she spotted a pair of yellow eyes in a nearby shadow.

"Same with mine. We're all clear. Let's get the bodies taken care of before anyone else sees." Ryan said as he stepped out of the shadow, his eyes brightly glowing in the darkness.

"I'll get your guns." Alice said as she retrieved them from the roof with her Telekinesis. She presented them to him, and he took them from the air with a nod of thanks. He slung them across his back, and slid his - still unused - Colts back into his leg holsters.

A few minutes later, Alice had piled the bodies of the eight men outside of the fence, and helped Ryan to strip them of their gear. It was a few moments before she noticed something unsettling about the bodies.

"Ryan... do these men look... strange to you?" Alice continued to use Telepathy, growing fond of how... natural it felt compared to actually talking to him.

"Yeah, they look very well fed. They're also well equipped. When I was watching them from the shadows, they seemed... far to... professional in their movements. The way they carried their guns, their walks, and the way that their gear was laid out." Ryan said as he unloaded the shotgun that one of them had carried. He piled the shells in the dirt beside several pistol magazines.

"Exactly. And the one that I killed had this R700 sniper rifle." Alice said as she opened the bolt of the rifle and ejected the rounds, one after another.

"I think that we might be under Umbrella's surveillance. They must have a way to track us..." Ryan considered, which made Alice nod her head.

"They used satellites to scan for my location until I disabled my tracking chip they'd implanted in my head... but that was two years ago. And I know for a fact that Katie's devices were both destroyed. So it isn't from her..." Alice explained, thinking hard.

"What about her equipment? Does Umbrella have any methods to track the location of her gear?" Ryan suddenly suggested after several seconds of silence. "That pistol of hers... that's far to well kept to have been scavenged. I'm gonna take a look at it, just to be sure."

"Her knife as well." Alice nodded. "Unless it was something that any of the three of us might have been in contact with when we destroyed the Vegas lab..."

"What method do the devices often use to pinpoint a location? I can sense magnetism and electricity, so if it's one of them, I'll find it for sure."

"Usually it's GPS based. A tracking device of some kind." Alice replied. "Wait a second..." Alice suddenly froze, thinking hard. "Remember those snipers... the ones that shot me?"

"Fuck! I must have taken a bugged piece of their gear when me and Katie looted their bodies. C'mon, grab all their crap here and take it back to the pickup. I'll get the bag of their gear and find that bug."

With that, Ryan sprinted back to the fenceline, then jumped clear over the six foot tall fence in a spectacular long jump thanks to his extremely enhanced running speed. He went straight for their truck, grabbed the dufflebag of gear and returned to Alice in a matter of seconds.

"I can sense a weak electrical energy from the bag. I'm going to run it away from here, find the damn thing, and get rid of it, keeping the rest of it for us to use. I'll be back in a few minutes." Ryan said, surprisingly he wasn't panting after his rapid acceleration and jumps.

"What if it is all bugged?" Alice asked, voicing a sneaking suspicion that had risen in her mind.

"I have one of Katie's Incendiary grenades in my vest." Ryan replied, reaching into one of the small pouches that adorned the upper portion of the chestplate, above the magazine pouches across the stomach. He withdrew one from the pouch, and shoved it into his belt. "If the whole thing is bugged, I'll burn it all. Simple, really."

He threw the bag over his shouldler and sprinted straight into the desert, leaving Alice to finish organizing the equipment used by the strange unit of soldiers. However, not one piece of equipment had any sign of Umbrella affiliation on it at all, even the guns.

Ryan returned a minute later, and judgling by the faint scent of smoke, he'd burned the entire bag.

"Bugged?" Alice asked, gathering all the loose rifle rounds from the R700 in her cupped hands.

"Bugged." Ryan replied, then plucked one of the bullets out of her hands. "Alice... these guys really WERE sent by Umbrella."

"How do you know that?!" Alice asked, nearly exclaiming vocally at the revelation.

"Look at the percussion caps on all those bullets." Ryan replied, flipping the round that was in his hand so that Alice could see the dreaded Umbrella octagon embossed on the back of the bullet's surface.


	6. Chapter 6

In the early hours of the morning, Katie awoke suddenly when she felt someone moving very close to her. Her eyes snapped open and she extended her wrist blade, only to realize that is was just K-Mart rolling over in her sleep.

Retracting her blade, Katie relaxed and curled back up into her bedroll to go back to sleep. However, a moment later, she heard K-Mart mumble her name in her sleep.

"Katie... Don't do it... Not there..." She moaned to herself before falling silent again. To Katie, it sounded like it was a nightmare of some kind.

Since K-Mart was wounded, Katie decided not to wake her up so that she could get her rest, even if she was having a nightmare. Katie knew better than to move her away either. So she dragged herself closer to K-Mart's body and wrapped her arms around her shoulders, using her innately high body temperature to keep K-Mart warm against the coolness of the night. She eventually fell asleep as well, a small smile on her face.

At dawn that morning, Claire woke up and recalled that Ryan had wanted her to inform Alice to go find him. She immediately got up from her bedroll and started to search for Alice amongst the other people sleeping in the warehouse.

It took only a few seconds of searching before Claire stopped in her tracks. She had just spotted Katie and K-Mart asleep together, both of them wrapped in a tight embrace.

With her blood beginning to pump loudly in her ears. Of all the people to form the second unwanted relationship, it just had to K-Mart and Katie! Ryan and Alice were enough as it already was... now _this_?!

However, the sight of the two of them had Claire second guessing herself: On the one hand, it was really adorable to see Katie and K-Mart sleeping together like that. She was even beginning to wonder if Katie LIKED K-Mart, the more she stared... the more it seemed plausible. Maybe Katie was a lesbian and had yet to figure it out for herself...

On the other hand, K-Mart knew the fucking rules about relationships! Why would she go behind her back like that?! What was she thinking?!

"Awww, they're so cute!"

Claire spun on her heel in shock, only to realize that it was Alice, wearing her brown duster and fully equipped with all of her weapons.

"If only I had a camera. Then I could easily blackmail the two of them." Alice smiled widely as she rested her M3 on her shoulder.

"Alright then..." Claire mumbled to herself, then she remembered. "Ryan wanted to talk to you. He's out..." She began but Alice's smile changed into a more knowing smile, which cut her words short.

"Claire..." Alice spoke quietly. "No matter where I am, where he is, or where Katie is... The three of us know _exactly_ where each other are. We can sense the T-Virus inside each other's bodies. Even if we are surrounded by zombies, we still know where each other are, since the Virus bonded with us."

Oh...I uh..." Claire faltered. She couldn't remember if any of the three of them had told her that before, but she didn't overthink it any further. "Okay. I'll remember that."

"Good." Alice nodded before leaving her and walking outside. Ryan was waiting for her right outside the door. He seemed to be holding a severely sawed off pump shotgun in his hand. "Hey, what's that, Itoshii?" She asked him Telepathically when she noticed the weapon in his hands.

"Masterkey." Ryan replied, falling into step beside her as she strode across the compound.

"A what?" Alice raised an eyebrow, but was still using Telepathy as they approached the fence. She'd sensed six zombies outside the compound while she spoke to Claire. Luckily, she and Ryan repaired the hole in the fence that the soldiers had made to get inside. Ryan used his Electrokinesis to fuse the cut metal back together again.

"It's an underbarrel mounted shotgun for assault rifles... like a grenade launcher." Ryan explained, "I looted it from one of the soldiers from last night." He paused for a moment as he also sensed the six undead she was going for. "Are we just going to use our blades on them?"

"Yeah, here." Alice unsheathed her kukris and handed one of them to him, but he shook his head. "Are you going to use your wrist blades on them instead?"

"I have something else."

Alice was actually beginning to feel slightly anxious about what he was talking about. Why wasn't he going to use his wrist blades, which as far as she'd seen up to this point were his primary melee weapons.

"What is it? Do you mind showing me?" Alice asked, checking him up and down in the corner of her eye. Despite his many pouches and armour plates, she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary on his body.

"I'll take care of these undead. You'll see it." Ryan teased before he started to sprint towards the fence and jumped spectacularily into the air, sailing several feet over the top of the fence.

As he proppeled through the air, Alice noticed that his rifle and M37 were angled on his back in the same direction... and was that...?

Ryan reached over his shoulder in mid air and grabbed something. The moment that he landed on the ground, he swung his arm out widely, slicing off one of the zombie's heads in one fluid motion.

"Is that Katie's katana?" Alice whispered to herself aloud, watching the movements that Ryan made: they were smooth, graceful... Beautiful... almost as if he was a professional with a katana.

When he finished killing the six undead - which wasn't very long - Ryan returned to the fence, sheathing the katana on his back, where the hilt was hidden by his guns.

"Holy shit... Where'd you learn to use a katana like that?" Alice gawked after he'd jumped back over the fence again. "That was amazing!"

"I took kendo for a few years. Learned the proper way to use a katana, but since the outbreak started, I didn't have access to one up until now." Ryan replied. "But you're no slouch with a blade either, Alice. I could learn a thing or two from you."

Alice smiled at the compliment, but then had a sudden thought. "What about unarmed? How well do you fight without weapons? That means without your wrist blades as well."

"Nope. I can throw a decent punch, but I'm not anywhere near as good as I am with a katana or my wrist blades." Ryan shook his head slowly.

"I can teach you how to fight, but it'll cost you." Alice teased him, taking a step closer to him until they were mere inches apart.

"And what would that be?" Ryan replied in an amused tone.

"You have to..." Alice said Telepathically before abruptly switching to vocally whispering into his ear. Ryan's eyebrows shot up in mild surprise when she glanced at him for his response.

"It will be done." Ryan replied simply. He smiled behind his mask... This was going to be quite an experience, to say the least.

About half an hour later, once the convoy had all woken up and gotten back on the road again, Claire had strangely ordered Ryan and K-Mart to ride with her in the Hummer. Alice and Katie had shared a concerned glance, but after a stern glare at Ryan, He gave a silent nod and sat in the back seat of the Hummer without any further resistance.

So, at the present, Claire was silently driving, leaving K-Mart very confused by Ryan's presence. Unbeknownst to the two teens, Claire was doing this purposely: She wanted them to initiate the conversation as to why she had asked for them to be here. She wasn't going to barrel into them like a freight train like she usually did.

"Okay, seriously...Why is Ryan riding with us, Claire?" K-Mart finally fell for Claire's guilty silence trap, and stared at the redhead, who was smirking smugly out of the opposite side of her mouth.

Claire said nothing, but held out her hand towards Ryan, who instantly knew he was in for a lecture. He grasped her hand and asked. "Yes, Claire?"

"Why do you both think I wanted you here? It relates to both of you." Claire asked aloud, which made Ryan glance at K-Mart in mild confusion.

"How about a broad category?" K-Mart suggested, watching the strange ritual of touching Ryan to talk to him. She honestly hesitated before ever touching him due to the potential risk of being shocked.

"Female." Claire replied, which instantly got Ryan's attention.

"It's Katie, isn't it?" Ryan asked, which made Claire nod.

"It's about Katie, yes." Claire answered. "I have a lecture... and some questions. First things first, Ryan... Not a word of this to Alice or to Katie. Am I clear?" She added sternly.

"Understood." Ryan replied. K-Mart simply nodded.

"Second, K-Mart." Claire glanced at her. "Why were you two sleeping together like that this morning?"

"What?!" Ryan instantly glanced at K-Mart, who was confused at the statement.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I fell asleep before her, and I woke up with her hugging me. What's the big deal, Claire?!"

"Ryan... I know this is very blunt and personal..." Claire began slowly, then barreled into her question before she overthought it. "Is Katie by any chance, a lesbian?"

K-Mart's jaw dropped, her cheeks flushed and she averted her gaze. Ryan noticed that, but filed it away for later as he replied. "Elaborate. I don't understand the question."

"Has she shown signs of being interested in girls? She really seems to like K-Mart, and I feel it in my gut. She isn't like a normal girl... Virus aside, I mean." Claire explained. "I found the two of them basically making out in their sleep this morning. I just wanted to know if you'd really noticed that about her."

"And you're giving K-Mart trouble for being liked? Do you realize, Claire, that this entire conversation is highly illogical? Why does it matter if my sister is a lesbian? Who cares if she likes K-Mart?!" Ryan stated angrily. He quickly grabbed K-Mart's hand so she could hear him talking. "Claire, who gives a fuck if people are in relationships in the convoy? Sherry is dead! That was the last straw for you, I know! But you have to get over that and move on. We might just be the last civilized group of humans left on the planet, aside from Umbrella. If we can't have one small scrap of our humanity, our hearts, then who's to say we're not the same as the undead? Mindless... heartless... empty."

"I just crossed a line with you... didn't I?" Claire asked after several seconds of stunned silence. She had never heard him say something like that before, and it was surprising that he'd kept that all to himself since Sherry had died. Shit...

"Yes. Yes, you did." Ryan replied flatly before letting both of them go and crossing his arms.

For the rest of the ride, Claire and K-Mart sat in silence. Ryan was right; if they didn't have a shred of their humanity left... how were they any different from the undead?

At noon, Claire pulled to a stop at the edge of a former camping ground. One of the trees had a hanging corpse, held by a noose.

"Ryan, take Alice and Katie and clear this place out so we can stop for a bit." Claire ordered as they exited their vehicles, ready for anything to attack them at any second.

With a nod, Ryan returned to Alice, relaying the order Telepathically. Alice gave a nod, then turned to Katie.

"Stay here and wait for us. We won't be very long."

Katie gave a nod, holding her M870 to her chest as she scanned their surroundings. Alice had taught her how to use Telepathy during the drive there, so she could relay any messages between them.

"C'mon, Itoshii." Alice spoke specifically to Ryan Telepathically, leading him through the trees.

Half an hour later, Ryan and Alice returned to the vehicles, Alice was smiling very pointedly as she approached Claire. Ryan stayed at her shoulder protectively. They'd had several close encounters in the campgrounds with undead and several wild coyotes, so he was still on edge.

"We found a freshwater spring in the middle of the park." Alice smiled happily at the prospect of cooling off from the desert heat. "Do you have any objections if we use it for a little while?"

Claire glanced at Ryan, then at Katie out of the corner of her eye. She had a sneaking suspicion that neither Ryan or Katie could actually use the spring. Ryan was permanently electrified, and Katie... well, Katie controlled fire.

"Alright, but I want a few guards to watch over everyone else. Whoever doesn't want to swim is on guard duty." Claire ordered, giving in to even her own desire to have a dip in the spring. 'But can I talk to you for a quick second, Alice?"

"Sure. Ryan, start bringing everyone to the spring. I'll be right with you, Itoshii." She gave Ryan a kiss before following Claire a few steps away. "Is something wrong?"

"Actually, yes." Claire admitted. "Has Ryan gone in the spring yet?"

Alice nodded. "He fell into the water when he tackled a coyote. The water started sparking, so I think I already know why you asked."

"Let him know he's on guard duty, please. I don't want to take any chances." Claire ordered, rubbing her neck distractedly. "Anyway, let's go have a swim, it's not like we get a chance like this to actually relax."


	7. Chapter 7

Splashing and laughter rang out in the campground, and were accentuated by the sounds of an acoustic guitar. Once upon a time... these sounds were normal for the area.

However, the sight of about a dozen heavily armed people, and a circle of heavily modified vehicles was NOT normal for the area.

Katie, having been under Umbrella's control for over four years, was extremely excited to actually swim... for fun! Not to infiltrate a stronghold, not for a stamina experiment... fun!

The one upside to Umbrella's constant experiments on her left her with very little personal shame. She was always being examined, and all her time being dormant in a capsule was nothing to sneeze at. She, and almost everyone, had discarded their clothes inside their respective vehicles, save for Ryan and the dozen or so survivors that had been put on guard duty, plus Otto, who was playing the guitar.

However, much to everyone's amusement, the moment that she'd entered the water, it began to steam, bubble and heat up around her. She blushed vividly, and hurriedly jumped back out and rush to Alice's side in embarassment.

"Hey, c'mon Katie! There's nothing to worry about. It's just water. You're just too hot for it to handle." Alice reassured her. She too was unashamed of being naked, from her time with Umbrella, it had left a mark on her... Literally. She had dozens of scars on her arms and legs, which were normally hidden by her clothes.

Katie blushed even more at her words, but she gave a nod before stepping back into the water once again. This time, she did so with much more confidence... and a billowing cloud of steam.

Ryan was carefully watching their surroundings for any signs of movement, and kept a constant check on his T-Virus sonar. So far, only Alice and Katie were catching his attention in that regard, so that meant they were all safe... for now, at least.

Claire had allowed K-Mart to join her in the water, but since she'd been shot, she only allowed her in up to her waist, to prevent further damage to her wounds. They were splashing around, having fun beside Alice and Katie.

About twenty minutes later, Alice came out of the water and boldly walked right up to Ryan, whispering into his ear. "Give me a minute to get dressed, then come with me. I have something for you."

Ryan remembered the conditions he had agreed upon for Alice to teach him martial arts, so he nodded once and continued to wander around the edge of the treeline while he waited.

Alice returned to his side about two minutes later, and together they snuck several yards into the trees, out of sight of anyone that could be watching.

The moment that they were hidden, she spun around and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him passionately. Without even thinking, Ryan returned it with equal vigor, linking his hands around her waist and pulling her closer to his chest.

However, Ryan realized a moment too late that she had just clasped something around his neck. He broke apart from her, and glanced down at the object around his neck...

It was a silver chain.

"What is this for?" Ryan asked, confused by the metal chain. Why would Alice give him this?

"Same reason I have this." Alice smiled, speaking vocally to him in a low voice. She held up her hand, which had a ring on her ring finger that matched his new necklace. "Ryan..."

Alice faltered after saying his name. She blushed - very unlike her - and averted her gaze for a second. After taking a deep breath, she returned her eyes back to his golden gaze and said the words she wanted to finally say. "Will you marry me?"

...What?

Ryan was in utter shock. He had not expected Alice to ask him to marry her, and he couldn't even form a response for almost an entire minute. By the end of that minute, he gave up trying to tell her, and simply nodded.

Alice felt tears welling up in her eyes as she watched him nodding his head. She flung her arms around his neck again, her knees giving out beneath her and causing her to fall backwards with him on top of her.

They landed in the grass with huge sheepish smiles on their faces, and they just stared at each other for a long time, savouring the moment for as long as they possibly could.

Alice gently kissed him, placing her palms under his jawline and pulling his face closer towards her own. She lightly nipped his lower lip, enjoying this rare oppurtunity to truly be alone with him.

Suddenly taking her by surprise, Ryan rolled over onto his back, bringing Alice up onto her knees over top of him. She gasped with the sudden reversal, but smiled immensly. She had to admit, she'd always loved to be the dominant one.

"Ryan... I love you." Alice smiled, swooping down to kiss him again. This time pressing her tongue through his lips, requesting entry past his teeth. He immediately obliged, dancing his tongue with hers for control.

"Daisuki, Itoshii." Ryan replied, which made her stop and raise an eyebrow at even more Japanese words she would learn. Did Ryan speak Japanese as fluently as he did in English?

"Daisuki? What does that mean?" Alice asked, staring into his yellow eyes lovingly.

"It means, 'I love you.' but together with Itoshii, it means 'I love you too, my darling'." Ryan translated, smiling widely.

"Well, maybe you could teach me Japanese. It's something I've actually wanted to learn, even when I was still working for Umbrella."

"I can do that... But how about something in return?" Ryan taunted. "I can't guarentee that your plan..."

"If you teach me Japanese, then I'll teach you martial arts. Deal?" Alice cut him off. She didn't need him to remind her that her little plan had an almost slim to none success rate. They'd climb that hill once they got there.

"It would have been nice to travel to Japan before the outbreak. But sadly, it cannot be done. Boats are out of the question, and no air travel is possible without something like an aircraft carrier to refuel from." Ryan smiled widely. "But even that isn't possible. Not enough people to crew a ship of that magnitude."

"I'm actually a licensed pilot. I could fly us there, given a long ranged plane and sufficient fuel. Mind you, we wouldn't be returning to North America for quite a long time." Alice placed her hands on either side of his head, palms flat on the grass, which caused her damp hair to form a hanging curtain around their faces. "Are you sure you want to do that?" She teased him with a sly smile.

"Would be quite the trip." Ryan replied as he lifted his head and began to kiss her again, pulling her down on top of him. "But I'd rather stay here with you."

Alice decided against any more teasing. Right now, she and Ryan had a moment together, and she wanted it to last as long as possible. She had an idea for the next oppurtunity this happened, but it would take some convincing for Ryan to agree to it.

"Well, Itoshii, maybe we should head back to the water, in case we've been noticed." Alice said aloud as she - most unwillingly - rose to her feet and offered her hand for him to stand. When he took it, she pulled him upright and once again pulled his face to hers, giving him one final passionate kiss.

Ryan gave a nod, then tugged his mask back in place. He followed her back to the spring, where everyone was still having fun in the water. Katie was easily spotted, due to her steam clouds.

"You know..." Alice began. "You can have a quick dip after everyone else has finished. Claire might not mind, if it was just for a couple of minutes..."

"Alice... That would mean I'd be dangerously charged, and even I don't want to test that theory anytime soon." Ryan shook his head solemnly. "Besides, It'd take too long for me to get all my gear off."

"That can easily be arranged." Alice purred into his ear. "Which reminds me... Why DO you wear that vest... and this armour too?" She asked, the question had been strangely nagging in the back of her mind. Why did he wear them?

"Well, the body armour is mine from before the outbreak, and it helps me to carry most of my gear. The metal armour though... It's kinda hard to explain..." Ryan replied sheepishly.

"Try to explain it." Alice encouraged him. "It can't be that difficult."

"I use it as a battery." Ryan said after a few seconds of thought. "If I electrify the metal, then I can actually temporarily feed from the stored electricity whenever I need it."

"But I thought you naturally generated your electricity? Like how Katie creates her fireballs from nothing. And my Telekinesis." Alice pointed out, remembering the very first time that Ryan had used his Electrokinesis during their fight against Issacs. He didn't have anything metal at the time except for his vambrace.

"True. But I'm constantly radiating static electricity, and even though I can't sleep anymore, I still lose energy throughout the day." Ryan explained with a shrug.

"That reminds me... Why the hell can't you sleep anymore? I forgot to ask you that night you came back." Alice demanded. It was not all that unusual to have strange traits from the T-Virus. Alice herself had sharpened teeth and a highly accelerated heartbeat from the T-Virus, on top of her other abilities. Maybe Ryan's insomnia was due to the electrified state he was now forever in.

"Because I regenerate my electricity through muscle movement. If I were stationary for long periodds of time, then I would..." Ryan paused to choose his words. "I would... drain my internal battery and likely have a seizure, which thankfully, causes quite a bit of muscle movements, thus recharging my body back into life."

"That's it?" Alice began to chuckle. "If you sleep, you have a seizure? But that doesn't seem all that bad to me."

"Well, according to the White Queen... that's the most common reaction that I'd have..." Ryan replied seriously.

"Wait... there are other reactions to sleeping?" Alice stopped laughing and stared at him curiously. "And from what was she basing this information from?"

"A new Electrokinetic B.O.W codenamed 'Salamanders.' They resemble headless salamanders, and when fully grown, generate electricity like I do." Ryan explained. "But from birth to their actual death, they are constantly moving around to generate their charge. If they stop for long enough, they either have a seizure and revive themself... or..."

"Or what?" Alice asked, sensing a more fatal reaction to losing their charge.

"They die. The White Queen's database contained fifty files that had tested Salamander reactions to long periods of stationary restraint. Forty two of them had the seizures, five of them somehow managed to escape their restraints - which voided their tests - and the last three died after losing their charges."

"So that means, unless you are a restless sleeper and constantly rolling over, you have roughly a ninety percent chance to have a seizure, but ten percent chance to die." Alice concluded, which made Ryan vocally chuckle. "You sleep like a log... don't you?" She asked, realizing that if he was laughing, that little idea was out the window.

"Yup. Still as a stone." Ryan replied flatly. "That's the reason why I charge up my arm. If I can use that as an external power source - temporarily, mind you - then that means I can safely sleep. Otherwise, it's go! go! go! for the rest of my life."

"I have an idea... A really strange one, but I think it will work for sure." Alice had a sudden inspiration. "Did you ever have a dog?"

"Nope. Katie is allergic to cat and dog hair. We had a tarantula named Steve." Ryan replied, shaking his head.

"Well, if a dog is particularily loud or barks constantly, sometimes an owner would put this specialty disciplinary training collar onto the dog. What it did... whenever the dog barked, it would shock the dog. It's a cruel way of training them to be silent, but these shock collars are actually really common in most pet stores I've scavenged from. You'd be surprised what a dog's chew toy can be used for nowadays, or even a shock collar..."

"Let me get this straight..." Ryan glanced at her. "You're saying that I should wear a dog's shock collar while I sleep, so that the thing will give me enough of an electrical charge to actually sleep... but doing this without charging my arm. am I far off from your idea, Itoshii?"

"That's exactly the idea. And I can guess we'll be passing through a town at some point soon, so I can go with you on a scavenging run to try and find a shock collar for you." Alice nodded. "And maybe..." She stepped closer to him, speaking in a husky voice. "Maybe we can actually sleep together..."

Ryan smiled behind his mask. He knew exactly what she meant.

'Well, I am your big guard puppy, 'Sparky' after all." Ryan replied teasingly, pulling her close. "What's the harm in me wearing a collar?" He smiled wider as he jokingly added. "Woof woof."


	8. Chapter 8

After their refreshing swim, the convoy packed up and returned to the road. Ryan returned to the pickup truck, leaving Katie to the driving while he made his first attempt at charging his arm to sleep.

"Alice, I'm going to try to sleep for an hour. Wake me up then. If my arm isn't sparking, then wake me up early. Consider this a field test to see how long my arm stays electrified." He explained, pulling his mask and hood off - which was quite surprising. Normally he only removed one or the other, never both at once.

She gave a nod. "Okay, but if we need you, you'll be woken up regardless." She reminded him as he began to electrify the metal on his arm. It sparked and crackled, which was a good sign. It was holding the charge.

Ryan smiled before closing his eyes. A few minutes later, his breathing had audibly slowed, he was now asleep and his arm was still sparking and crackling. Good so far!

Alice kept a watchful eye on him for the next forty uneventful minutes, watching and listening. Sparks and hissing.

Suddenly she sensed a lot of zombies up ahead of the convoy, around a street corner as they passed through a small town. She grabbed her radio from her belt and informed Claire of their presense.

"How many can you sense?" Claire asked back.

"About two hundred and fifty of them." Alice replied with a sigh. She debated on waking up Ryan so he could fry them en masse. Was their sleep test worth 250 zombies to cancel?

"We'll take the other turn. Keep track of them untill we're all clear. There's too many of them for you three to take down. Hold your fire." Claire ordered, then began to relay their new directives to the rest of the convoy.

Alice lowered her radio. Even though Claire wasn't aware of their test, she had allowed them to continue testing how long Ryan's arm could sustain his sleep. She glanced back at his arm, it was still sparking madly, but the sounds had begun to grow quieter. Forty five minutes, and the sounds began dimming... Noted.

Ten minutes later, having passed through that small town safely, Alice checked on Ryan again, this time noticing that the sparks, though still very numerous, were starting to diminish in intensity and size. C'mon, they'd almost reached their goal of an hour! Still going strong!

As the seconds finally ticked down to the end of the hour, Alice never took her gaze from his arm. The moment that the time was up, she threw her personal safety into the winds and touched Ryan's neck, hoping he wouldn't shock her. She'd actually gotten used to his normal static aura, she could touch him without flinching... This was an exception though, due to the nature of their test.

Instantly opening his eyes, he grabbed her hand and turned his gaze upon her. He scowled until his eyes came back into focus a few seconds later, during which he released her hand and smiled.

"So... One hour? How was it?" He asked, purposely discharging his arm as he began to experimentally move his limbs, testing for any problems.

"Very fucking tense, I'll tell you that." Alice sighed. "But I can confidently say, you still have quite a bit of charge left after an hour. And you're right, you DO sleep like a stone."

"How long do you think I can last? Because compared to the amount of power I'd initially put into my arm, I only got back about..." Ryan paused for a moment to calculate the amount. "I'd say between seventy five and eighty percent of it."

"So you're saying that you could roughly sleep for four or five hours by using just your arm?" Alice asked, still taking note of the numbers and calculations. This was still an incomplete experiment, by no means was it even halfway completed. Now they had to try to acquire a shock collar and test it out on him.

"Something like that. But if there is a variable that makes me discharge at a different speed, then it could very well be higher or lower. We need to do more tests later on."

"Yeah. But for now, let's keep you awake. No more sleeping until we change the conditions and isolate the variables." Alice said as she turned to face the road ahead of them. "Besides, what if you added more metal to your body? Wouldn't that increase your external charging capacity?"

Ryan thought about it. More metal wouldn't be all that difficult to acquire, nor would it be that hard to make it wearable. Hmmm... where could he get more metal to work with?

"You mean give him more armour?" Katie suddenly asked, breaking his thoughts. "Why not try to find a museum that has medival armour? Isn't there stuff like that that's still intact?"

Alice's expression changed from pensive to impressed in an instant. "That's right! Platemail or chainmail would be perfect! I think that actually might work! But there's one problem... We'd have to sneak out at night... Not that we haven't done that before. Probably gonna have to tell Claire that 'Dawn' thing again."

"No need to worry. Look up ahead." Ryan pointed at a fast approaching road sign, which had tourism information. One of the things on the sign was a museum of ancient history. "There's the place. Now we just have to get there."

Just as Ryan pointed it out, Claire's voice came over the radio, signalling Mikey to locate a safe place to stop for the evening. Ryan, Alice and Katie looked around in surprise, it was actually really late in the afternoon, almost sunset. They hadn't even noticed!

"That museum's got a pretty secure perimeter. Maybe we could send our lovely trio to scout the place out?" Mikey replied, well aware that Alice, Ryan and Katie could hear him. "Hey, Ryan, do me a favour mate! Find me a nice looking sword. I think we should have another go at that boss battle from a while back, huh?"

Ryan chuckled. He then said jokingly to Alice. "I'll try my best. But I'd rather find a thunder spellbook instead of a sword."

Alice relayed his message, but Claire interrupted them and said. "Stop fucking around! We need a place to stop, and that museum is our best choice. Alice, Katie, Ryan, you three check the place out. Everyone else, set up while we wait for them."

Following Claire's Hummer until they reached the locked gates of the museum, Ryan, Alice and Katie began to gear up for their search in the museum. Ryan had already combined the Masterkey with his G36K, so he unloaded the M37 and slid those shells into the Masterkey. He then left the M37 in the truck, since he no longer required it. He then removed his bow and arrows. He was ready.

"Sigvus pacma parabellum." He said Telepathically, more to himself that to either Alice or Katie. They both heard him though, and Alice paused loading her M3 to glance at him.

"That didn't sound Japanese... What was that?" She asked as Katie stopped the truck outside the gates. They all climbed out, ready to infiltrate the museum's perimeter.

"Sigvus pacma parabellum. Latin. 'If you want peace, prepare for war.' I learned it from our uncle. His drill instructor made him recite it while he was in the military." Ryan said as he pulled up his mask and hood, once again becoming the deadly black shadow they'd become accustomed to seeing him as.

"Damn. That's quite the quote." Alice commented before Telekinetically breaking the chains that sealed the gates. "C'mon, I'll take point. Ryan, take the rear."

Quickly moving into the massive front parking lot of the museum, they noticed that there were many, many cars still parked inside. Ryan noticed right away that a few of them here and there had large slashes taken from the bodies, like something had attacked them with a huge axe.

"Alice, look at that." He indicated the nearest damaged car. "Know any B.O.W's that could have done that?"

Alice studied the damage. She too made the comparision of a large axe, but nothing B.O.W related came to mind. "No, nothing that I know about. Looks like they were wrecked by a huge axe or something."

"I thought that as well. We'd better be on our guard, something big is here." Ryan replied, scanning their surroundings cautiously. The hairs on his neck had begun to rise eerily. He had a feeling they were being watched or were walking into a trap.

"Wait!" Alice suddenly said Telepathically, her gaze riveted on something hidden behind the tire of a car. "That's a tripwire, this place is rigged with traps." She pointed at a thin wire, leading from under the car to a nearby pole. It was about six inches off the ground, which could be any number of possible triggers. "Go around it."

Ryan glanced under the car on his hands and knees. He carefully checked the tire and found a mousetrap jerry rigged to seemingly ring a cow bell, more than likey in a repetitive manner upon activation.

"It appears to be a sound trap. An alarm esentially. There's no way I can disarm it safely." Ryan informed Alice, who took note of the trap's usage and stored that info away for a later time. "Whoever made it knew what they were doing, and they did it really well."

"Okay, Ryan, you take point instead. Check each and every trap we find. Maybe we can use them to our advantage, if need be." Alice stepped away from the tripwire, and Ryan rose to his feet. "Sound traps are something new to me. Never seen one before."

"They're just fixed location alarms. Even something as simple as broken glass on the floor can be considered a sound trap. We'd better be careful inside the museum, who knows what is rigged in there?"

"Okay, I'll tell Claire." Katie suddenly spoke up. "If I stay back with them, I can relay messages from you to them with Telepathy."

"You sure, Katie? You've been staying back with the convoy a lot. Something wrong?" Alice asked as Ryan carefully scanned the pathway ahead of them through his rifle's integrated scope. He spotted another tripwire and what appeared to be a beartrap a few yards beyond it.

"I..Um... well, I want to make sure they still get live updates from our scouting... but I also want to well... I want to let you two have your space a bit more. I'm always in the way, and I kinda like K-Mart..." Katie's last sentence trailed off into an almost inaudible mumble, but Ryan and Alice got the point.

"Well, if you want the truth, Katie... I asked Ryan to marry me while we were at the spring. We've had our alone time for today, okay? But, if you really want to stay with them, go ahead. We won't stop you." Alice smiled as she crouched down to eye level with Katie and put her hand on her shoulder gently.

"So that means you're my aunt or something?" Katie's face lit up happily. "So we're a family now?"

"Well, to make everything a lot easier on us, let's just say I'm your new mom. Helluva lot easier than cousins, aunts, or all that confusing stuff. Ryan's still your brother, but I'm unofficially your mom, okay?"

Katie shrugged. "You're still going to be 'Alice' to me. But sure, why not? I can't remember my mom anyway. Plus, our dad died when we were both younger."

Ryan shot them both a glance over his shoulder. He held his comments to himself for the time being, but he had a few questions for Alice.

"Alright, kiddo, go back to Claire and let her know that the place is full of traps. We'll let you know what else we find as we go." Alice patted her on her head, which earned her a beaming smile from Katie as she pulled her kitty hood onto her head and jogged back to the rest of the convoy.

The moment that she'd left, Alice turned to Ryan and readied her M3 at her shoulder. "You were checking for more traps, right?" She asked Telepathically as she also noticed the distant beartrap.

"Yeah. There's a tripwire about five yards from that beartrap. It's rigged right across the pathway, but it's way too close to this sound trap to be another one... It's different. I'll check it out." Ryan replied, crouching down and slowly approaching the left side of the wire, with Alice right behind him.

"What good is a beartrap in the middle of the parking lot? It's better if it was covered with sand or leaves... camoflauged, I mean." Alice asked Ryan as he carefully checked under the car to identify this trap type.

'Well, the undead are mindless, so they don't really have the mental capabilities to be fooled by camoflauge or trap placements. Shit, this is the wrong end. Other side must be the trap." Ryan got up and went to the other side of the path, checking the trap's design. "That's odd... This trap is rigged up into the car's engine. Can you open the hood for me?"

Alice Telekinetically opened the car's front hood, and slowly lifted it, which revealed an obviously trapped engine block. It had a shotgun aiming out of the grill, right towards the tripwire!

"Shotgun trap? Can you disable it? I don't think I can do anything with my Telekinesis." Alice carefully stepped over the tripwire and examined the design from the top.

"What type of shotgun is it? Semi auto or pump action?" Ryan asked as he checked the bottom. "If it's semi auto, then that means it can be reset, and reloaded."

Alice examined the shutgun closely. It appeared to be a semi automatic Benelli M4, AKA the M1014 from above, the ejection port was unobstructed and had no shells anywhere in sight. That also meant is was currently loaded. "Yeah, it's semi... and it's loaded. You think we can disable it. I want that beautiful gun."

Ryan slid under the car with a smile. That last comment alone was one of the reasons he loved Alice: She had always been, and was obviously quite proudly, a tomboy. No makeup, tea parties and dresses while she grew up. Nope, it was guns, sports and dirt stains for her.

Speaking of which...

"Hey, Alice... I know this is out of the blue... But I've been wondering... How old are you?" Ryan asked as he carefully began to unscrew some of the bolts holding the M1014 in place. He was also mildly surprised that a few of them were still magnetized, which made his task quick and easy.

"I'm 36." Alice smiled, resolving to scan their surroundings while Ryan disabled the shotgun. "Born in Detroit, but I moved to Raccoon City after I was hired by Umbrella to work as head of security at one of their labs."

"Wow." Ryan was actually surprised that she was still in her thirties. He knew - from his rapid maturation - that the T-Virus forced their bodies into their prime physical condition, but at first glance, Alice only appeared to be around 25 years old. "When I first met you, I thought you were about 25 or so."

"The T-Virus causes your body to rapidly regenerate cells, even to the point of accelerating or reversing physical aging. When I was first given the Virus, I was 32, but according to the results of too many fucking tests, I am now physically and forever more, about 24 to 28 years old. Same goes for you too. Since you've grown after bonding, it means you are about the same age physically. Around 24 to 28 years old. Permanently." Alice explained. "But there's something about Katie that's different. She's still growing, I'm almost certain of that, but it doesn't seem to be affected by the T-Virus like we were."

"Well, maybe it needs a certain amount of aging to take place before it can accelerate? I dunno, but what I _can_ tell you..." Ryan smiled as he very carefully began to remove the M1014 from the triggering system that would otherwise fire the weapon. "Is that this shotgun is now on a hair trigger. I need you to click the safety on it. _Now_."

Alice instantly turned her gaze onto the switch and clicked it into the safe position with her Telekinesis. She then grabbed it from Ryan's almost motionless hands and wrenched it from the frame. "Done. Now it's mine. Let's get to work clearing a safe path through these cars so we can get inside the museum."

"Alright, good plan. Katie? Did you catch that?" Ryan relayed to Katie. "We're clearing a safe path throught all these cars. Tell Claire we've also found another trap type. It's rigged via tripwire to trigger guns hidden inside some of the cars."

"Okay, I'll tell her." Katie replied almost instantly. "What guns have you encountered so far?"

"Shotgun only." Ryan replied. "But I think there's more than just that around here."


	9. Chapter 9

Half an hour after disabling the M1014, Ryan and Alice had safely cleared a straightforward path through the literal maze of cars until they reached the front entrance of the museum. Up until that point, neither of them had sensed any T-Virus except for themselves and Katie. But now that they were standing at the front entrance, they realized that the place was crawling with zombies, with the sole exception of the front lobby.

"Katie, tell Claire that the parking lot is secured. We've marked the safe route to the entrance with cars with opened hoods. Tell her we're going to go inside the museum now. It's full of zombies, we can sense at least a hundred of them." Alice relayed to Katie as Ryan opened the final car hood and put the supporting rod into place.

"Okay, she wants to know if it's safe to move up yet." Katie replied after giving the newest message from Alice.

"No. If these zombies detect a food source, meaning not me, Alice or you, then they'll start swarming outside and could cause a chain reaction of traps. I've found quite a bit of incendiary and explosive style traps, in addition to a few too many beartraps. This area is basically a minefield, and there is only one safe path. If that path is overrun, then you guys would be trapped. Stay put for now, until we clear out the museum." Ryan explained as he readied his rifle to his shoulder, following Alice inside.

"You take the first floor, I'll take upstairs. When we're finished, come back here and wait." Alice said as she drew her kukris and slung her M3 onto her back. 'No guns unless it's a B.O.W, okay, babe?"

"No problem. See you in a few, Itoshii." Ryan pulled his mask down and gave her a quick kiss before pulling out his katana and shouldering his rifle. He quickly went into one of the adjacent halls, leaving Alice to slowly walk up the main staircase.

Ryan cleared out the first few wings in mere minutes, passing through the remnants of many other exhibits until he found the medival arms and armour exhibit, where his secondary objective awaited; Find more armour for himself.

Thankfully this section was only inhabited by four zombies, one of whom was dragging her legless torso around with one arm. It appeared that her arm and both legs had been cleaved off with a blade, and quite cleanly so. Ryan's blood coated katana, which was also a clean slice hadn't touched that particular zombie... so that meant whatever slashed the cars outside was what cut the limbs from this zombie.

Ryan glanced around the exhibit floor. He was mere feet from the four zombies, but something was making him uneasy. There was another threat in here, waiting in ambush.

Decapitating the four zombies, Ryan scanned the shadows and began to formulate an attack plan. But first, there was a prize to be acquired.

He had just spotted a particular suit of armour; platemail with chainmail at the joints, it wasn't the suit as a whole that caught his eye, it was the shin guards that he wanted. Forget the rest, he wanted the damn boots from it!

Taking his time, Ryan removed the pieces he wanted and carefully buckled them in place on his shins. He then took a glance at the adjacent display hall: Roman Empire. He could sense more zombies in there, so he readied his katana and walked right inside.

"Ryan, how are you doing so far? I'm almost finished in the east wing." Alice relayed to him as he found a particular pair of weapons he knew about; cestus.

"Got my armour, and I got a new weapon." Ryan replied as he fitted the metal gloves onto the back of his hands. Now he might have a chance of doing some damage with a punch, since his hands were now reinforced. "Got about six more zombies left."

"Okay, I'll make my way to you in a minute." Alice replied, which meant that she had only a handful of zombies left to kill.

Ryan sighed and got back to his task of clearing the museum when he got the same feeling like there was something following him, watching him... waiting for the right moment to strike.

Since he was unable to talk, Ryan's first plan would have once been to call out to confirm if the threat was human. If they replied, then he'd strike up a conversation with them... if they weren't... then he'd use the sound of his voice to lure them out into the open.

But now that plan is fucking useless! He was on high alert, searching all around for the thing to show itself... wait a minute, high alert, uneasy feeling... shit!

Ryan looked straight upwards and felt his stomach drop. There wasn't six zombies left for him to kill in this area...

they were the same type of B.O.W that had originally infected him, over three weeks ago!

"Alice, I've got a problem. Remember that thing that originally infected me at the gas station? There's half a dozen of them on the ceiling above me. What are they called?" Ryan asked, keeping his eyes switching between the six creatures crawling around above him, somehow defying gravity.

"Lickers. they're the L-251b B.O.W, weak point is their chests, they have exposed hearts. They use their long tongues for ranged attacks, and claws and bites up close. Stay put, I'm on my way." Alice explained. "What exhibit are you in right now?"

"Roman Empire, near the red chariot. I'm standing in the open." Ryan checked his immediate surroundings, then returned his gaze right back to the Lickers. "I'm really tempted to shoot these fuckers." He added angrily, but didn't bother reaching for his rifle or one of his pistols.

Moments later, Alice came striding into the exhibit hall, looked around for the red chariot, then walked briskly towards Ryan, giving his new leg armour a quick glance.

"I think you can get more metal than that, but that's just my opinion. Now, as for these fuckers..." Alice spoke Telepathically before she looked upwards. "I say we piss them off, and let you..."

Alice's sentence stopped short when the sound of heavy footfalls started pounding from another exhibit hall. Immediately, the Lickers became agitated, flicking their whiplike tongues around as they remained high up on the ceiling.

"Hide?" Alice suggested, already eyeing a nearby spot; the chariot.

"Fucking right!" Ryan replied, dragging her by the wrist into the chariot and throwing a nearby tarp over them, leaving a small opening to spy through.

The footfalls began to approach the entryway, now accompanied by the sound of a heavy metal object being dragged across the smooth floor. The sound of the Lickers above changed to utter silence. Their growls stopped and their tongues stilled as a massive humanoid wearing a strange bloodsoaked apron and a burlap sack over its head came into view, dragging behind it a heavy broadaxe that had a few chains wrapped around it. The blade had dark bloodstains all over it, except for a particularily fresh splatter.

"What the fuck is that thing?" Alice asked, still using Telepathy. "Wait, look! that thing in its hand."

Ryan realized that it was dragging a person, a living person, into the exhibit hall by their hair. However, it appeared that this person was covered in blood, but was unconcious. Their boots dragged across the floor as they were unknowingly being dragged to their demise.

"I found signs of this place being inhabited on the other side, so that brute must have killed that person's partners and for whatever reason, dragged her all the way back here." Alice explained, watching the big thing walk right past the chariot without even a second glance, continuing into the medival exhibit.

'I think I know what it's going to do in there. Come on, follow me. Stick to the shadows." Ryan slowly removed the tarp and lead Alice in pursuit of the big bastard and his hostage.

Following it until they reached an open area, which was clearly the brute's 'lair' judging by the many signs of its presense here; axe marks, scuff marks and cracks adorned the floor and walls, plus a pile of two handed axes from the medival exhibit were laying around. However, most notably was the large wooden frame of a guillotine in the center of the back wall, the heavy blade suspended at the top, clearly heavily used by the brute. The blade was almost black with blood, and Alice finally figured out two things:

Firstly, what it was planning to do with the hostage...

and secondly, what she was going to name it...

"_Executioner._"

**A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, it's leading up to a big fight scene.**


	10. Chapter 10

"Good name. But we're gonna have to forget forming a plan. Just shoot the bastard!" Ryan grabbed his G36K from his back, sheathed his katana and stepped out into the open, already boldly aiming his rifle towards the Executioner.

Alice shoved her fingers into her mouth and gave a loud whistle, instantly getting the attention of him, just as Ryan began firing at his chest.

With a growl, it dropped the unconcious woman, and before either of them could act, slammed his massive axe into her chest, splattering blood in a massive puddle on the floor.

"Well... fuck. So much for saving the bitch." Alice grumbled as she began firing at the Executioner, who wrenched his axe from the woman's corpse and began to advance on what it perceived to be the bigger threat...

Ryan.

"Ryan, we need to find out if it has a weak spot. Keep it distracted for a minute while I check its back." Alice started to flank the Executioner, while Ryan continued firing at it, then reloaded his magazine anew.

"Katie, we've encountered a large B.O.W, we need you to bring some more firepower. Hurry!" Ryan relayed to Katie, raising his hand and stunning the Executioner with a jolt of electricity as he began to move backwards away from its approach.

The Executioner stopped momentarily after being shocked, but began moving again in a moment. Still dragging the bloodied axe across the floor, still advancing towards Ryan, who had not stopped firing at its chest and head, save to reload his gun.

"There's nothing on its back! Shoot the head!" Alice notified Ryan with Telepathy as she silently approached the Executioner from behind with her M3 in hand. "I'm gonna try something from back here, just give me a second."

Ryan quickly noticed her plan, and before he could stop her, she leveled the M3 to the back of the Executioner's head and swiftly pulled the trigger.

With a burst of bloody chunks, the Executioner's head exploded, leaving behind a cloud of red mist, which covered Alice's upper body in an instant.

With wide eyes, Ryan immediately replaced his empty magazine and chambered a new round. Alice was wiping her eyes of blood when she realized that the Executioner's body hadn't thudded to the floor...

With a panicked cry, Alice was suddenly grabbed by the throat and lifted into the air by the seemingly headless B.O.W. She could barely see past the thing's huge arm due to the blood still obscuring her vision. However, Ryan was easily able to see the horrific sight in front of him.

Where the head had one been was now replaced by a flailing mass of tentacles, with a bulbous central mass of flesh. Even worse, there was another tentacle rising from the Executioner's spinal area, topped by a scythe like blade.

It had mutated after losing its head.

"Alice, hang on!"

Ryan turned to see Katie charging around the corner, carrying Ryan's sniper rifle in her hands. She instantly braced it against a nearby pile of debris and fired at the central mass of flesh in the tentacles.

The burst of blood splattered Alice even further, but also made the mutated B.O.W drop her to the ground.

With a groan, Alice landed on her back, and her M3 slid across the floor out of her reach. As Katie operated the rifle's bolt, Ryan made a split second decision as the Executioner raised the axe high over Alice's stunned form.

Tossing his rifle aside, Ryan sprinted up to the Executioner and with all his might, kicked it in the back of the shin as he grabbed the shaft of the axe with both hands and pulled it to the side.

However, despite his grab at the weapon, only his kick had any real effect. He caught it at the very moment it swung the blade down, but due to the hefty kick to the leg, it slammed into the floor a few inches away from Alice's head, embedding itself deeply into the concrete.

With that, Ryan was thrown over its shoulder and tossed across the room, right into the gullotine's heavy frame, shattering it. The massive blade slammed to the bottom, thankfully not striking Ryan in his painful impact against the wall. He landed with a sound that was not far off from several bones breaking at the same time.

Katie fired again, this time severing two of the tentacles, one of which was the bladed one. She operated the bolt one last time, partly because there was only one round left in the mag, but also because of how slow and heavy the rifle was in her hands.

With Alice stunned in a life threatening position, and Ryan injured, she had few options to buy time for them to recover. But, like Ryan, she threw caution to the wind and charged at the Executioner recklessly, praying that the sudden change of tactics would distract it long enough for Alice to at least move further away.

But, the moment she realized she made a mistake was when the Executioner kicked her - hard - and sent her flying through the air, landing back beside Ryan's rifle.

With the all of the air knocked out of her lungs, she could barely focus her vision to even see what the Executioner was doing, or even where it was standing.

However, Alice had recovered enough in that moment to begin to drag herself away from the Executioner, taking advantage of how it had its back turned to her. She made it about six feet away when it turned back to her, flailing the few remaining tentacles it had left. It slowly started to approach her, menacingly slow, but a sound above her head caught her attention...

An angry growling...

With a grunt, Ryan threw the gullotine's heavy blade through the air towards the Executioner, and as it soared over Alice's head, she realized that it was heavily charged with electricity.

The Executioner's body barely offered any resistance as the blade sliced right through it, cutting it in half just above the heart. The blade slammed into the wall across the exhibit with a resounding crash, which echoed slightly as the three of them panted heavily.

Katie hauled herself into a standing position, using the debris pile for support as Ryan's injured body gave out and he fell to his knees beside Alice.

Alice, being in the best condition of the three, slowly stood up and confirmed that the Executioner was truly dead.

"Babe, can you move?" Alice placed her hand gently on his shoulder, crouching down in case she needed to support him out of there. "Or are you regenerating at the moment?"

With a wave of his hand, Ryan answered slowly. "Regenerating. Go check on Katie, I'll just be a minute."

With a nod, Alice hurried over to Katie, who was still breathing hard after being kicked. Thankfully though, nothing was broken for her. "You alright, kiddo?"

Katie nodded, holding a hand to her chest as she tried to breathe through her pain. "I'm fine, let's wait for Ryan to finish regenerating before we deal with those L-251b's on the ceiling in the other hall."

"I'll do that. I've got a vendetta against THEIR kind." Ryan spoke up, still letting the T-Virus in his body repair his broken bones. When he'd crashed into the wall, he'd broken his left collarbone and his left femur. When he hit the floor, however, he broke seven ribs and his other femur. Even he was surprised he'd managed to throw the gullotine blade at all.

"When you're ready, you can take them all. We're gonna scavenge from the supplies I found earlier, okay?" Alice nodded before Telekinetically retrieving her M3 and his G36K. She slung the M3 onto her back, but placed the rifle against the debris where Katie had set up his rifle. "Oh, I was curious... what type of rifle is this?"

"It's my G36K. I got it from our uncle's house with you, weeks ago, remember?" Ryan raised his head slightly to give her a serious glare.

"I mean this sniper rifle. Sorry, I should have been more specific." Alice indicated the heavy rifle resting atop the rubble.

"Oh, that's my custom modified Paratus-18. I rechambered it from 7.62mm to .50 calibre rounds, and replaced the old semi-auto frame with a bolt action chassis." Ryan explained. "It was one of the many improvised guns I've made over the years."

"Wow. Now that's impressive, babe. Remind me later what else you've modified. Might give them a field test some day." Alice teased before leaving the hall with Katie to get the supplies she'd found. "Meet us in the lobby when you're ready." She added vocally over her shoulder as they left.

A minute or so later, Ryan's collarbone gave one final snap as it was last bone to mend. He waited about thirty seconds, just to be sure they'd set, then rose to his feet and grabbed his two rifles. He slung his G36K onto his back - since it had a shoulder strap, unlike his Paratus - and carried the other in his hands as he approached the Roman Empire hall, where the Lickers had remained up on the ceiling in the shadows.

Leaning the Paratus against the red chariot, Ryan checked his surroundings for Alice and Katie, his expression oddly guilty behind his mask.

Raising his gaze, Ryan locked onto the first Licker he saw, and began to concentrate intensly.

With a flick of its tongue, the Licker dropped down from the ceiling and landed cat like a few feet away from Ryan, who continued to stare at it, concentrating as much as he could while still being able to move his body.

The Licker slowly approached him like a timid dog, flicking its tongue out a few inches every few seconds. Ryan slowly extended his hand, and received a curious lick from the Licker.

Tasting the T-Virus in his palm, the Licker grew slightly more confident as it approached him and sat down on its hind legs, exactly like an dog would.

With a smile, Ryan gently patted the top of the Licker's head, which was actually an exposed brain. It had no eyes, and Ryan felt a twinge of sympathy. He himself was a mute, and the Lickers were all blind. They shared something in common; a physical disability.

However, despite the connection that Ryan and the Licker seemed to be having, he remembered that all six of them had to be killed. So, while he was petting the creature, he slowly and carefully unsheathed his katana and prepared to kill it.

However, the Licker suddenly rolled onto its back, its tongue lolling around lazily. Ryan remembered that Alice had mentioned the Licker's weak spot was the heart... Then he looked down at it...

Pumping loudly right before his eyes was the Licker's heart. Completely exposed. Ready for his blade... or a bullet. Either one would work...

With a sigh, Ryan rubbed the Licker's belly, earning a satisfied sound for his attentions. However, Ryan raised the katana and swiftly impaled it through the Licker's heart, killing in nearly instantly before it could even make a sound.

With a long exhale through his nose, Ryan got to work, repeating the exact same strategy with the remaining five Lickers, calling them out one by one, then luring them close enough to kill with his katana.

It took ten minutes for him to finish, and he knew conclusively that he could actually draw them in, almost as if he could control them. Maybe it was because he'd first been exposed to the T-Virus by a Licker that he was able to do that?

For now though, he resolved to keep it his own little secret, not even Alice or Katie needed to know about it... for the time being, at least.

**A/N:**** That's all for this set up uploads. But first, if you don't know, Cestus are the medieval version of boxing gloves or brass knuckles. The are made of metal, and give a punch more force. Also, the name of Ryan's Paratus-18 sniper rifle is something I made up :P**


	11. Chapter 11

Despite Ryan, Alice and Katie clearing out the entire building of zombies, Lickers and the _Executioner_, Claire insisted that the convoy sleep in the foyer, with Ryan guarding the front entrance to the building, Katie guarding the east door, and Alice guarding the west door. She'd even had the upper area's door barricaded to prevent any _surprises_.

Late in the night, Ryan had left his post for a few minutes to restock his 5.56mm ammo for his G36K, and to drop off his Paratus-18 in the M35. When he returned, he was met with an angry Claire on the building's front steps.

Extending his hand, Ryan noticed that Claire appeared to have just woken up; her hair was a mess, and she was very pale. But her angry expression was evidence enough that she had quite the fire lit inside her.

However, Claire slapped his hand aside, and took a threatening step closer to him. "What were you thinking!?" She snarled in a fairly quiet whisper. "You were assigned this spot for the night. You'd better have a good reason to not have been here just now!" She hissed at him like an angry goose, then grabbed his hand roughly. "Answer me, now!"

"I went to the M35 to drop of my Paratus and grab more 5.56mm ammo. I only had one mag left." Ryan explained, which, to him, was a valid reason to have stepped away for a few minutes. In fact, he had simply placed the Paratus inside the M35, grabbed a small crate that carried a portion of their 5.56mm supply, and dumped some of it into a knapsack, which was currently slung over his shoulder. He'd intended to load the rounds into his empty magazines while he sat on the steps.

To simply put it... he was bored.

"You know what... that's fine. But you should have done that while we ate dinner. Next time, have someone else at least take over your place until you return. Got it?!" Claire snapped, letting his hand go and turning back to the front doors.

Ryan gave a sigh, then sat down on the steps, pulling his knapsack off his shoulder and began to slide rounds into his empty magazines, one by one.

Later that morning, just before dawn, Ryan was still sitting on the steps when he saw movement in the parking lot. He spotted the source, and immediately called for Alice and Katie.

They came jogging outside moments later, weapons at the ready.

"See the red pickup truck? Someone is hiding behind it right now. I saw them sneaking across the parking lot. All I caught a glimpse of was blonde hair." Ryan explained as he pointed out the specific truck.

"I see them. Katie, you come with me, We're gonna cover Ryan from the second floor while he tries to catch them." Alice took Katie by the hand, then turned to Ryan and added vocally. "Alive."

Ryan gave a nod, and slung his G36K onto his back. He handed Alice the knapsack and said. "I grabbed some ammo with this earlier to refill my supply. There's about fifty rounds left in there, hang onto that until we get back on the road."

With that, Ryan tugged his mask down, gave Alice a quick kiss, then sprinted down the steps and began to long jump from car to car, landing on the hoods, headed straight for the intruder.

With Ryan's rapid - and somewhat unnerving - approach, the intruder saw him coming and made a break for the front gate, sprinting for their life from what they'd perceived to be a jumping black shadow... a fast one at that.

However, Ryan smiled at the reaction he'd been expecting. The moment he'd landed on the ground from his final jump, he instantly sprinted so fast that for a brief moment, he was invisible to the naked eye.

He reappeared a few feet ahead of the person as they neared the gate. However, he slid on his heels and extended his hand at the gate, causing it to slam shut with a clang. He turned back to face the person as they slid to a halt.

"Stay back! I'll kill you! Whatever you are!" The person, a young girl by the sound of it, said in a panicked voice as they drew a pistol from their hip and aimed it at Ryan.

Ryan held up his hands very slowly, palms facing her. This action actually surprised her and she lowered her gun a few inches.

"Wait, you're human?!" The girl asked, to which Ryan gave a thumbs up. 'You should have said something while you were chasing me!"

Ryan gave a very pronounced and exhaggerated sigh. She tilted her head in confusion at the action. 'What's with that sigh? What's the deal? You can talk... right?"

Ryan shook his head and slowly reached for his mask, pulling it down until his heavily scarred throat was exposed.

"Holy shit! How'd you even survive after that!?" The girl slowly approached, sliding her pistol back into her holster. "My name's Taylor, Can I give you a nickname?... for now, I mean." She held out her hand for him to shake...

Rookie mistake.

Quick as a flash, Ryan grabbed her by the wrist, and pulled her arm around behind her back. With his free hand, he pulled her pistol out of the holster and shoved it into his belt for the moment, effectively disarming her. He then pinned her other arm to her side by wrapping his metal arm around her torso. She immediately felt his electrical aura and became terrified.

"My name is Ryan. I don't need a nickname. Come with me, you've got someone to talk to." Ryan smiled as the girl tried to futilely struggle free from his expert pin and superhuman strength. She then went pale when she realized she'd heard him speaking in her head.

"What the fuck!? You can talk?! You lied!"

"Keep you voice down. And no, I didn't lie. I can't talk in the way you think. I'm Telepathic. I speak with my mind, and do so through direct skin contact. Now, kindly come with me so that I can get back to what I was doing before I caught you, okay Taylor?" Ryan began to lead her back to the museum as he spoke. "And don't worry about your gun. I have it."

Taylor went silent. She'd forgotten to grab a knife when she left to come here. And she also didn't carry a second gun either. She meekly allowed Ryan to lead her backwards past dozens of cars that had their hoods opened, and here and there were disabled beartraps.

When he'd reached the museum steps, he spun her around and altered his grip in her so that she was pinned more effectively for transport.

When Ryan lead her to the top of the steps, the doors were pushed open from the inside by a tall blonde woman and a black haired little girl that had heterochromatic yellow and green eyes. They seemed curious, so that means he'd been on guard duty outside when he'd caught her.

"Caught a stray." Ryan explained, and Taylor cringed at the sound of his voice sounding so casual instead of low and threatening. "Says her name is Taylor. Nothing else."

"Taylor, huh? Come with me. Ryan, release her." The woman took her by the shoulder with an equally strong grip as Ryan's bone crushing pin. Ryan instantly released her hands and walked along behind them.

"Weapons status?" The little girl with the eyes asked, which prompted Ryan to reach into the back of his belt and retrieve Taylor's pistol. He handed it over to the girl without a word. "Ah, I agree. It's definitly a Sig P226. Feels like it's only got a few rounds in the clip though."

Taylor shot the girl an alarmed glance. She was insane! Having a conversation with herself like that! What had she gotten herself into with these people?!

"C'mon, hands on the back of your head, let's go." The woman ordered, and Taylor instantly noticed the subtle agressiveness in her body language. She immediately put her hands on the back of her head, and felt the woman grip her wrists together tightly. "Follow me."

Taylor turned to the woman and realized that she wasn't being held by her. But try as she might, it still felt as if her hands were being crushed in her iron grip, or even as if it was Ryan again.

She glanced behind her as best as she could and realized that Ryan was still standing with the crazy girl, who was still talking to herself. Surprisingly, Ryan gave a nod and then a shrug to her words.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Taylor mumbled to herself, which earned a glare from the tall woman.

"Wouldn't you like to know. Now, let's go! Move!" She crooked her finger, and Taylor felt her legs beginning to move forward. Try as she might, her legs disobeyed her brain's commands to halt. Her arms were still immobile as well, which was beginning to scare the shit out of her.

"Claire, we've got a stray. Ryan found her outside." The woman spoke to a redheaded woman who was walking towards them. "Her name's Taylor."

"So, Taylor... I see that you're lightly armed. That means you're part of a larger group. What was she carrying?" Claire, who appeared to be the leader, asked her then asked the second question to the woman that had somehow restrained her and manipulated her body.

After a moment of silence, the woman replied. "Katie says it is a Sig P226. She only had a few rounds in the clip, so I'm assuming she met some zombies on her way here." The woman then turned to Taylor. "Is that right?"

Taylor nodded, quickly deciding that Claire was the person to focus her attention towards. This strange woman appeared to be a lieutenant within their group, whilst Claire was their leader. She stored that theory away for later reference.

"Just a Sig, huh? So... Where are you from, Taylor?" Claire asked as she crossed her arms and began to tap her foot.

Taylor heard footsteps behind her and felt a charge in the air, like really intense static electricity. It was followed a moment later by a rise in temperature, and her back began to sweat. She remembered when Ryan had grabbed her, and deduced that Ryan was the source of the static, and she then guessed that the girl - Katie, was her name? - was somehow the source of the heat.

"And if I refuse to tell you?" Taylor asked, not trying to sound defiant, rather, she was weighing her options... not that she had many to begin with...

"Ryan will fry your central nervous system, Katie will melt your flesh, and Alice will dislocate your brain from your spine." Claire replied coldly. "And if you're wondering why you're unable to move, you can thank Alice for that." Claire glanced pointedly at the tall woman beside Taylor, who gulped.

"Fine... I'll tell you. I'm from a place a few miles from here." Taylor explained. "It's a community of survivors."

"A community?" Claire repeated. "How do you keep out the infected?"

Taylor had seen the various vehicles parked outside of the museum; the school bus, the news van, tanker truck, army truck, tow truck, Hummer... these people were a mobile convoy!

"We have a whole town completely surrounded by a huge concrete wall, plus we have a hydroelectric dam to power the town." Taylor explained. "My mom is expecting me back in a few hours. I was sent to find a scavenging team that came here yesterday, but hadn't returned. The rest of my team that went with me were killed, so I'm the last one left."

"That doesn't answer the question, blondie." The crazy girl, Katie stated flatly. "You're coming with us to go to this community place."

"What?" Claire turned to the girl suddenly. "What the hell are you doing, Katie?!"

Ryan stepped forward and took Claire's hand. He was clearly explaining something to the redhead with his Telepathy thingy. She gave a nod in agreement to whatever he'd said to her.

"Alright, but I'm only agreeing to this because it's your idea, Ryan." Claire said sternly. "Alice, you and Katie bring her back to her mother, and find out more about this community place."

"Um... Can I say one thing before we go?" Taylor piped up as crazy Katie and the woman... Alice? turned and began to lead her back outside.

"What?" Claire raised an eyebrow, while Ryan narrowed his eyes, which Taylor realized for the first time, were glowing yellow, just like Katie's left eye.

"My mom says that it isn't a community..." Taylor pointed out. "She says the place has an official name."

"And what is the name?" Claire asked, sounding like she was humouring Taylor.

"Sanctuary." Taylor replied flatly, before allowing Alice and crazy Katie to lead her back outside.


	12. Chapter 12

Alice and Katie walked out of the museum with Taylor in tow, still being Telekinetically restrained by Alice. They walked right to their pickup truck, but remembered that neither of them had the keys. Ryan was the one that had parked it inside the museum parking lot the evening prior.

"C'mon, I have an idea." Alice said as she forced Taylor to follow her to the M35, where she climbed up and pulled a tarp aside to reveal her white motorcycle, the one that had been long forgotten up until that moment. "We'll use this."

"How?" Taylor asked, which earned a silent glare from Alice.

"Watch, learn and listen." Katie replied, already aware of how exactly they would all ride her bike at the same time.

Alice used her Telekinesis to get the bike back out of the truck, and after slowly lowering it to the ground, she reached into her duster's pocket and withdrew her keys to the bike. She swung her leg over the seat, and crooked her finger again, causing Taylor to unwillingly walk to the bike.

Grabbing her by the hips, Alice hauled Taylor over the bike and placed her right in front of her, sitting right on the edge of the seat before the gas tank. "Don't move, this isn't the best place to be sitting, got it?"

Taylor nodded, and felt Alice grab her by the wrists and brace her hands on either side of the gas tank. Then she felt her entire body freeze. She couldn't move a muscle!

Katie swung herself onto the back, and out of the corner of Taylor's eye, she seemed to be carrying a submachine gun in one hand while the other wrapped around Alice's stomach and gripped her gear belt.

"Alright kid, you give us directions to this... Sanctuary place. Which way do we go from the gate?" Alice spoke into Taylor's ear as she turned the engine of the bike on and began to ride it towards the front gate, which slid open on its own, like how Ryan closed it earlier to prevent her escape.

"Left. Then take the next right." Taylor replied tensely. She was utterly terrified to be in the presence of crazy Katie, but she was ready to shit her pants being with Alice. This was going to be a long ride...

"Katie, keep an eye out for any surprises. We've got fresh meat, so for once, we'll be targeted." Alice said as she turned the bike down the street and increased their speed.

"You got it, mom." Katie replied, checking over her left shoulder.

So Alice was Katie's mother? Taylor thought to herself. That explains why she found Katie so terrifying, and Alice was even more so. Dayum. She definitly took after her mother.

* * *

Minutes later, Alice spotted a strange building rising on the horizon. She asked Taylor. "Is that the wall?"

"Yeah! But we're on the wrong side! Head to the right at the next turn, then look for the big fenced off gate!" Taylor replied, holding on for dear life, even if her body was immobilized. Alice drove fast, and it was really scary being so precariously seated.

Katie had remained silent for the entire ride, but she suddenly spoke up. "Four of the right side. Leave them or kill them?"

Taylor turned her gaze to the right, but saw nothing. What was Katie talking about? There was nothing there!

"Leave them until they get close. I can sense them too." Alice replied, keeping her gaze forward.

Sense? Now Alice was acting crazy! there's nothing...

At that moment, Taylor caught sight of four zombies making their way towards them from the right side of the road. Somehow they knew exactly where the zombies were, before they'd even seen them... Wait, what?!

"Shoot them! Dodge them! Do _something_!" Taylor began to panic, even though she was immobilized, she was desperately fighting against whatever was stopping her. She wanted to make Alice turn away from the zombies, or have Katie shoot them! _Anything_!

"Katie... Do it." Alice said calmly, and Katie fired four rounds in quick succession as they passed.

All four shots landed. Right in the head, each time. The four zombies dropped to the road without any more trouble.

"Good. Now, you!" Alice spoke to Taylor. "Calm the fuck down. Otherwise, I'll actually let you fall off this bike and have allowed them to eat your fucking ass, okay?"

Taylor nodded quietly, facing the front again as the front gate of Sanctuary began to enter their field of view. Alice rolled to a halt and allowed Katie to dismount the bike first, then herself, then she hauled Taylor off last.

"Let's get this very clear; I'm only doing this because of two reasons: First. Claire ordered me to do it, and within our group, her word is law." Alice pointed her finger at Taylor sternly. "And secondly, because it was originally my husband's idea. Alright?"

So Ryan was Alice's husband... and Katie's father? Taylor clued in, and filed it away for later reference.

"Okay, I get it. You don't like me. Not a surprise there." Taylor mumbled the last sentence as she lead them towards th front gate, wher a fenced off area in front of the wall held a number of army medical tents, a small shack, and a massive bonfire pit. "Through there, that's our screening triage. Anyone new that joins us must go through a medical screening before being allowed past the gates. Obviously we check for the T-Virus, but also any normal diseases that could get others seriously sick. I'm already cleared for entry, I just need to have a bite exam... Not that I was bitten or anything... It's just a rule."

Alice narrowed her eyes at the triage. It was hard to tell how well equipped it was, but judging by the raw size of the wall, this place had serious manpower and organization. This was serious shit.

However, the mention of the bite exam made her smirk. Ryan would have detected the T-Virus the moment he'd caught up to her when she'd ran and informed herself and Katie before daring to bring her to talk to Claire. She was clean. So there was no worries in that department.

"Tell you what... You go back inside, and we'll be back later with our whole group. Then you can give us a full tour, meet your mother, and just maybe..." Alice leaned closer to Taylor. "Maybe I'll start to like you, just a little bit."

Taylor glared at Alice for a moment. "If anyone in your group is denied entry, then what will you do? Not like I have any authority on the inside of that fucking wall."

"Well, if someone is denied entry, then we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Now, run to mommy and we'll be back soon." Alice stood up and waved for Katie to return to the bike with her.

"Can I have my gun back?!" Taylor called, which Alice surprisingly took the pistol from Katie and tossed to Taylor without any argument.

"Apparently my husband reloaded it for you. You should thank him when he arrives." Alice called before revving the bike engine and driving away.

"What a weird family..." Taylor mumbled to herself before she jogged to the triage fenceline.

* * *

Alice and Katie returned to the museum within fifteen minutes, and were greeted by Ryan at the gate. He was seated atop the topmost horizontal bar, idly swinging his boot against the metal.

Ryan waved his hand, causing the gate to swing open, with him still seated on top. He then hopped down and closed the gate manually behind them.

"So, is she safe and sound?" Ryan asked, sounding very hopeful at the answer he'd receive.

"They've got a wall alright... damn think has to be at least fifty feet tall, and it's miles wide. They've got a fenced off medical screening area out front, got a couple guards, some tents, and that massive fucking wall. That's all we got to see. As for the girl..." Alice detailed their excursion. "We dropped her off about a hundred yards away from the medical area, she ran for it as soon as we left."

"That sucks. Any infected along the way?" Ryan asked, following them as they hopped off the bike and began to walk it back up to the M35.

"Only four of them. Katie took them all down." Alice patted Katie's head affectionately.

"So, now what are we going to do?" Ryan asked, giving them a sidelong glance as they reached the M35 and Alice leaned the bike against the truck.

"That's up to Claire. It's her convoy after all." Alice shrugged. "Just remember, we're simply her personal attack team of rogue B.O.W's."

Ryan rolled his eyes at the joke, then followed Alice and Katie back inside the museum, where Claire was waiting with her M4 in hand.

"So... it what she said actually true? Or is it all bullshit?" Claire asked, cradling the carbine to her chest.

"I saw the wall, and they have a fairly large medical area situated right outside of the front gate. The kid said that it was for first time entry, after that it's just a bite examination to get back inside." Alice explained, slipping her bike keys into her pocket and taking her M3 from Ryan as he offered it back to her.

"Well... looks like I have an executive descision to make on behalf of the convoy." Claire sighed, but Ryan stepped forward and placed his hand on her shoulder. She gazed at him in astonishment and nodded once. "Ryan just suggested that we put it to a vote, from everyone."

Alice glanced at Ryan out of the corner of her eye. Despite his mask, she could tell that his expression was displeased with the idea of entering Sanctuary.

"Whatever you say." Katie agreed to the suggestion, whilst Alice simply nodded, still watching Ryan.

"Alright, wake everybody up. I'll try my best to explain what we know about Sanctuary, and let them decide for themselves." Claire explained her intended plan, to which the three of them nodded.

"I'll do the honours." Alice said as she took a step forward to wake everyone up, but Ryan grabbed her by the wrist and held out his Beretta. "Good idea, babe." She took the pistol and pointed it straight upwards. "Claire... be ready for some _slight_ panic." She warned just before pulling the trigger.


	13. Chapter 13

BANG!

Before the empty casing had even landed on the ground, all of the survivors were awake an scrambling out of their bedrolls, while a few had even managed to get a gun in hand. However, the sight of Alice holding Ryan's smoking Beretta made everyone relax and lower their own guns.

"Alright, listen up! Claire has some important news we've just learned! She's going to explain, so be quiet!" Alice called out in a loud voice, handing Ryan back his pistol.

Claire immediately stepped forward and began her speech. "We've just learned that there is a community of survivors, infection free, and secured. It's a walled city, going by the name of Sanctuary. However, we know almost nothing about what's inside, all we know is that it is highly organized, and has a large population. Our source explained that to be allowed entry, we have to pass both a T-Virus check, but also a normal disease screening. But, before we even go there..." She paused to gather herself before continuing. "Is there anyone here that wishes to NOT live in Sanctuary? Who wants to stay out on the road, like we've done since the very beginning. All in favour of Sanctuary, stand with Alice and Ryan... Anyone who wants to stay on the road... Go back to sleep. It's your descision."

Claire stepped back beside Ryan, making her own choice very clear. She wanted to go to Sanctuary.

Murmuring rose through the assembled survivors for several seconds, then... one by one, they all approached Alice and Ryan.

"That settles it then... We're heading for Sanctuary." Claire declared loudly. "Pack up, we're moving out!"

In record fast time, the convoy were back on the road, but this time, Alice and Ryan were riding on her bike in the lead of the pack, Katie was driving their pickup truck, and everyone else was in their respective rides as they followed Alice back to their new destination.

Arriving fifteen minutes later, Alice turned to Ryan and said. "We'd best explain our... family condition to the right people with authority, lest we find ourselves with some unneeded attention, okay Itoshii?"

"Got it. We'd better find that girl's mother. It seems as if the woman has a fair degree of power inside Sanctuary." Ryan replied as he swung his leg over the bike and began to walk alongside Alice as they approached the gate.

An armed guard carrying an AK47 met them at the gate, eyeing them carefully. Alice explained that they'd rescued Taylor earlier and were invited inside by her.

The guard radioed for a medical team, and a woman named Michelle. He received a positive reply, and told Alice to wait before anyone could be allowed inside just yet. He turned back and left the triage area, entering the gates beyond.

Immediately Ryan turned to Alice with a glint in his eye. She instantly sensed it as well, dozens of infected were approaching from the east.

"Claire! We've got zombies coming from the right side! We'll handle them!" Alice yelled for Claire, who was standing near her Hummer. Claire gave a thumbs up, but reached for her M4 all the same.

Ryan instantly began to sprint towards the crowd of zombies that was approaching, drawing his katana while Alice followed right behind him with her kukris. Together they charged the horde head on, and within three minutes, they'd cleared them all out without a single one breaking through them.

"I counted a total of forty four." Ryan said as he sheathed his katana. "Let's get back to the gate so we can get inside the triage to relatively more safety." He began to walk back, and Alice fell into step beside him, enjoying her adrenaline rush after the battle. This very well could be her last one for a long time...

When they reached the gate, they were met by an auburn haired woman and a dozen doctors, plus twice their number in armed guards. Ryan immediately caught the woman's menacing aura, and he already knew she was the leader of all of Sanctuary.

"Who are you?" She demanded the instant that Alice approached, seemingly mistaking Ryan as Alice's bodyguard. It seemed that she also mistook Alice for the leader of their group as well.

"I'm Alice, you must be Michelle." Alice replied somewhat cautiously. Ryan could tell from both of their body language they were having a silent battle of wills. These were powerful, confident women.

"That is correct. Are you the leader of your group?" Michelle asked, glancing at Ryan in the corner of her eye. "And who is this big brute you have in tow?"

"This is my husband. And, no. I'm just a lieutenant. Shall I retrieve our leader?" Alice replied warily, pointedly hiding Ryan's name.

"Send him." Michelle indicated Ryan with her gaze. "I don't like the look of him."

Ryan turned to Alice, scowling lividly behind his mask. "The nerve of this woman!" He said angrily. "But, I'll go get Claire... Give me a chance to cool off, I guess."

"Itoshii, go fetch Claire. Tell her she's needed at the gates." Alice spoke vocally, turning to him in a calm slowness.

Ryan nodded, and turned on his heel, leaving Michelle and Alice to stare at each other with narrowed eyes.

"Itoshii... so that's his name, huh?" Michelle commented, crossing her arms over her chest.

"No." Alice replied flatly. "It's Japanese for 'Darling.' He can introduce himself, he isn't a dog like you seem to think he is."

"I can see why your leader made you a lieutenant instead of your husband. You've got some serious balls." Michelle smiled as Ryan returned with Claire in tow. "But then again, maybe you've got him so whipped, not even you can notice he's actually wrapped right around your little finger."

"Claire, this is Michelle, the leader of this place." Alice indicated Michelle through the fence when she came up to them, with Ryan standing between Alice and Claire protectively.

The small glance that Claire gave to Ryan at that moment meant to Alice that he'd explained what had been exchanged between them so far. She then turned her gaze to Michelle and nodded.

"Claire Redfield. I'm the leader of this convoy. You've obviously met two of my lieutenants already." Claire indicated Ryan and Alice with her hand. "So, shall I be blunt, Michelle, is it?"

"Yes, Miss Redfield, let's not beat around the bush." Michelle replied, shifting her weight to one leg. She hid her anger well, but not well enough for Ryan to detect the stiffening in her arms against her chest and the flaring of her nostrils.

"That's right, bitch. I'm a lieutenant, not a dog like you think I am." He smiled happily behind his mask. Alice caught his comment, and could tell that Claire had called him that without his incentive. She trusted him enough to be promoted.

"We want to enter Sanctuary, pending your permission, that is." Claire stated, putting her hands on her hips.

Alice, Claire and Michelle were all silent for several long seconds, and even Ryan could feel the electrifying buzz in the air surrounding the three most powerful women he'd met. His wife... his leader... and his new mayor...

Where was his mother while this was happening? Then there'd be a full blown _WAR_ between the four of them!

"Line up all your children. I'll have them screened first, then your adults, then finally your lieutenants. However, you and this big brute will be screened last. Is that understood, Miss Redfield?"

"If I may..." Alice spoke up, taking a distinctive step towards Ryan and wrapping her hands around his forearm. "My husband and I would like to be screened together, with our daughter. After Claire, if you would be so kind."

"Your husband hasn't said a word since you've arrived. What are you hiding, Alice? Are you bitten?!" Michelle instantly demanded, but Alice cut her off.

"No. We're not bitten. But the three of us have some explaining to do, pertaining to the T-Virus. So, while the rest of our convoy is being screened for entry, the three of us shall wait outside, guarding those that have yet to enter your triage. Once everyone has been screened, we shall enter to be screened, together. Deal? Then we can talk."

Michelle scowled lividly at Alice's determined tone, but she nodded anyway. "Fine. But I also want to know why your husband doesn't talk. Now, Claire, except for their daughter, gather all your children for a screening."

Claire shot daggers at Alice's reference to Ryan as her husband. However, with a silent look from Alice that read 'We'll talk later', she nodded once and returned to the convoy's schoolbus to announce the conditions for a screening.

A moment later, Katie arrived to see Ryan and Alice, cradling her MP7 in her hands, and Ryan noticed that her K-BAR was back in place on her shoulder after Ryan took over the usage of her katana.

"So this is your daughter... She takes after her father quite well..." Michelle commented quietly, but Alice clearly heard her.

"Except for her eyes. Her eyes are heterochromatic. They've been like that for years." Alice replied casually, holding her M3 across her chest in the same manner as Ryan and Katie were holding their guns. Her finger curled and uncurled around the trigger of the shotgun in an absentminded manner.

Michelle said nothing in reply, and continued to corral the survivors from Claire's convoy into lines through the fence, then ordered the line of children to enter.

Throughout the process, Claire, Ryan, Alice, Katie and the other lieutenants - Betty, Carlos, Chase, Mikey, Otto and LJ were on guard duty, protecting everyone else, who by Claire's orders, had been stripped of their weapons until they'd either been allowed inside, or if they'd been denied and forced back outside.

It took the next three hours for the entire convoy to be screened, and finally, after Claire was cleared for entry, it was time for Alice, Ryan and Katie to be screened.

"I'll bet you that Michelle gets pissed off about our little... how did you put it? 'Family condition'?" Ryan joked as he followed Alice and Katie through the gate and - very reluctantly - handed ALL of his guns and his katana over to one of the guards.

"She won't like it, that's for sure." Katie replied Telepathically, also handing over her weapons to a guard.

"Settle down you two." Alice reminded them, also Telepathically. "Just let me handle this woman. She's talked to me the most, plus she knows you're mute, Itoshii." Alice handed over her M3 and Glocks, then her kukris after a moment of hesitation.

Ryan noticed right away at that moment that - like himself - neither of them had revealed their wrist blades existence to the guards. He smiled behind the safety of his mask. This was going to be a delicate conversation to begin with... The aftermath is going to be damn near explosive...

"Alice... You said we'd talk..." Michelle stared at her pointedly, while the six guards flanking her aimed their guns at Ryan, Alice and Katie. "So start talking." She ordered.


	14. Chapter 14

Alice carefully explained everything she could, speaking in a way that gave them the best possible chance for Michelle to accept them.

"So let me get a recap so far..." Michelle pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes for a second. "The three of you have the T-Virus... but you're not 'infected' by it. You're SOMEHOW immune to that, and because of that immunity, each have unique superpowers, and can locate anything that has the T-Virus in it. However..." Michelle glared at Ryan lividly. "YOU are not like your daughter and wife: They were captured by Umbrella and experimented on, and you weren't. It was only recently that you were introduced to the T-Virus, thus granting your powers to you. Am I that far off, Alice?!"

"No. That is everything." Alice replied calmly. However, Ryan was not so calm in his words.

"Just because they were captured doesn't mean I'm subpar! What the hell is this woman's problem with me?!"

"Calm down, Itoshii. We'll find that out in due time. For now, let's at least try to get ourselves inside Sanctuary." Alice reminded him Telepathically.

"Well... What are your superpowers? They might have some usage inside Sanctuary, depending on what they are." Michelle asked, staring Alice up and down. She gave Katie a quick glance, but completely ignored Ryan entirely due to how little of him was actually visible through his armour, hood and mask.

"I'm Telekinetic... I can move things with the power of my mind." Alice explained, indicating herself with her hand.

"Like what?" Michelle challenged her.

"Sixteen hundred pounds of concrete for six minutes. That's my record." Alice scratched the end of her nose idly, as if that tidbit of information was nothing all that spectacular to have accomplished.

"That might be of use to us. We need some heavy lifters. Okay, how about your silent husband?"

"Electrokinesis and Magnokinesis. He can control electricity and magnetism, plus he doesn't require sleep to function." Alice explained, turning to him as she talked.

Michelle's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing in regards to his power. "And your daughter?"

"P-Pyrokinesis... I can um... control f-fire." Katie spoke for the first time towards Michelle, using her cuteness to her advantage.

"Hmmm... Not quite sure about how we could use that... But since she's your daughter, I'll let her in as well." Michelle sighed. "But swear, right here, right now, that you'll keep this a secret from the general population. Not everyone needs to know that your husband is a living battery, and your daughter is a walking matchstick. Keep this a secret, and I'll allow you inside, no screening, and a permanent bypass for a bite check."

"Done. My husband says 'Understood, Michelle.'" Alice indicated Ryan with her head as he mentally gave his reply.

"And you?" Michelle stared down at Katie, who once again played the cute card and took a step towards Alice, slightly hiding herself behind her back as she nodded. "Good."

Michelle held out her hand to Alice, who took it and gave it a firm shake. She held out her hand again for Katie, who glanced at Alice for support (still being cute) before shyly taking it as well.

Michelle visibly hesitated before offering her hand to Ryan though, and he easily noticed before she offered her hand and he slowly took it with a devilish smile behind his mask.

"Thank you, Michelle. For allowing our family into your Sanctuary." He spoke to her Telepathically, which caused her to release his hand like it had electrocuted her. (Which he didn't. He purposely redirected his electricity away from his hands and into his chest so that he wouldn't harm her in any way.)

"How did you..." Michelle began, staring at Ryan in shock. "I heard..."

"That is how he communicates to anyone without the T-Virus. He needs skin contact to use his Telepathy for them to hear him." Alice explained. "But the two of us don't need skin contact to hear him." She indicated herself and Katie with her hand.

Holding her wrist with her other hand, Michelle glared at Ryan for several seconds, almost as if she was rethinking her descision to allow him inside. But she released her wrist and beckoned for the guards to return their weapons.

Once they'd been rearmed, she then turned towards the rest of Claire's former convoy and loudly called out. "You're all now allowed inside of Sanctuary, use the rest of the morning to familiarize yourself with the city, and meet some of the citizens. Go on!"

As Claire and K-Mart gazed at Alice from across the triage, they gave her a 'we'll talk later' look before disappearing through the gates.

"However, Alice..." Michelle suddenly turned on her heel to face them. "I want you to meet me at the marketplace in half an hour. There are some things I want to discuss in more detail. However, in the mean time, go ahead and get aquainted with your new home. I will see you later."

Alice nodded before taking Katie by the hand and walking across the triage and through the gates, with Ryan at her side. Together, they inwardly prepared themselves for the beginning of their new lives within a walled city.

As Ryan passed through the gate's threshold, a thought passed through his head. One that made him hesitate for the smallest second.

'We're walking into a cage... Like we're just a pack of mindless animals.'

However, he kept that thought to himself, and didn't announce it Telepathically. His instincts were warning him that something was amiss somewhere inside the walls, and it didn't bode well with him. There was more going on than it seemed.

The moment that the former convoy caught sight of the well kept city before their eyes, they were almost instantly in shock when they realized that there was the nearly heavenly scent of cooking coming from somewhere just up ahead through the crowds of people.

"That smell..." Alice stopped in her tracks, mesmerized by the heavenly scent assaulting her nostrils. "It's something I've never thought I'd ever smell again!"

"What is it, mom?" Katie asked curiously, staring at Alice's awestruck expression. "I don't recognize it at all." Her grip tightened in Alice's hand at the sight of so many strangers around them. She stepped closer to Alice, taking a few calming breaths.

It was true: Having been under Umbrella's control for so long, and from such a young age, Katie had almost literally grown up eating canned foods, and military MRE's. She knew a small number of prepared dishes from her very faint memories of her time before being captured, but they were few and far between. In fact, she could barely register the fact that the strange scent contained meats.

"It's called curry. It's one of my favourite dishes... well... before Raccoon City, that is. Oh, what I WOULDN'T do for a really big plate of some well made curry..." Alice smiled wistfully as she sniffed the air happily, taking long and deep inhales through her nose each time.

Behind her back, Ryan's gaze was riveted to her, a strange glint in his eyes. Katie noticed over Alice's shoulder that Ryan's eyes had crinkled into an unmistakeable smile. She knew her brother well enough to realize he was planning something. However, she said nothing, since she honestly could already tell it was between them as a married couple, so it wasn't something she wanted to know about.

"Shall we keep looking around?" Ryan asked, still smiling behind his mask. He was actually amused that Alice was so enthralled by the scent of the curry. He thought it was another little quirk about her he would to grow to love. "I for one, want to check out that hydroelectric dam that Taylor mentioned."

In his own head though, he was dancing a victory dance at the knowledge that Alice loved curry. Unknown to anyone in the convoy, he was actually able to cook a large number of dishes... Curry was one of his favourite dishes to cook, not to mention HIS all time favourite dish, shepherd's pie. If memory served him correct, Katie's favourite dish before her capture was their uncle's special version of chicken and vegetable soup. Thankfully, Ryan knew the recipe perfectly. He was going to become well acquainted with the food vendors in the near future, that was for certain...

"I doubt that it's close to the entrance, to be honest." Alice snapped out of her reverie, turning to face him. "Unless you can sense the electricity that it's generating from here."

Ryan shook his head, snapping out of his inward scheme planning. "No, I can't. This whole area is being powered from what I can tell, but I can't isolate the source lines." He gazed off to the right. "However, about three blocks that way is a fairly large area that is devoid of electrical power entirely. That's very odd, so I'll catch up with you in a little bit, after I have a check to see why there's such a large deadzone."

"Are you sure, Itoshii? You are a mute, after all." Alice reminded him as she gently took his hand. "What if something happens with Michelle's guards? I personally think that they're her special police force or something like that."

"You mean something like with that sniper on the fourth floor of that tall building? He's aiming directly at your back." Ryan indicated the open window on the fourth floor, where a small glint sparkled in the sunlight. He was well experienced at spotting tell tale signs like that, and was amused that the sniper didn't realize what a rookie mistake he was making by sitting so close to the window.

"She has snipers watching the streets?" Alice replied in surprise, acting very casual about the fact she could be shot at the drop of a hat. "Actually, no... that makes sense. This IS the main entrance after all."

"He has a strange liking to you though." Ryan commented, still gazing at the sniper. "I think that Michelle is going to be keeping her eye on us for a while."

"So you want to set them up? Separating yourself from us, I mean." Alice realized his plan about the supposed deadzone. "So, is there REALLY a deadzone, or are you bullshitting me here?"

"It's real." Ryan replied honestly. "But I also want to figure out why the woman hates me so much. If anything, I can find us a place to go after that meeting you have with her. I'll ask around, might have one of the old convoy members to help with communications."

Alice could tell that Ryan was set in his decision to lure Michelle into his little trap, so she sighed and pulled his mask down to give him a kiss goodbye.

"If you EVER get into trouble, please... Don't you dare hesitate to call for me. Promise?" She stared at him from inches away, her eyes locked onto his.

"I will." Ryan replied, before pulling his mask back in place and disappearing through the crowds. "I promise."


	15. Chapter 15

The moment that Ryan left Alice's side, he knew that he was at a huge disadvantage. The fact he couldn't talk aside, he was in unfamiliar territory, surrounded by unknown people, and being watched from the buildings around him. One wrong move, and his head would be taken clean off.

So, he kept his cool and walked with the crowds, but once he reached the corner, he just changed his course and went with the next stream of people in the direction of the deadzone he could detect.

However, he kept a close eye on any open windows in the upper floors as he walked. In the first two blocks alone, there were eight snipers inside windows, and at least four watching the intersections from the roofs. He was mildly impressed by the forces at Michelle's disposal. Maybe she was formerly a high ranking officer - possibly either from the U.S military or a police force - that had quite a bit of experience and authority before the end of the world.

When he reached the end of the block, he was met with several guards on the ground, standing outside of a chainlink fence - topped with barbed wire - that spanned the width of the street. Beyond the fence was an open field, devoid of any buildings or lifesigns, even infected.

"Judging by the guarded fenceline, this might be undeveloped land, or there could be a break in the wall somewhere, thus making the area unsafe for anyone... well, anyone except me, Alice and Katie, that is..." Ryan kept his theory to himself, so that Alice or Katie didn't pick it up. Until he could confirm it, it was just that: a theory.

Scanning the roofs nearby, he spotted two more snipers, each facing into the fence, further solidifying his theory that there was a breakage in the wall nearby.

"Hey! You with the armour!" A voice called out loudly, causing Ryan to search the crowds until he spotted a guard approaching him with an MP5 in his hand. "Hold it right there!"

"Fuck... Might have to run, I clearly can't touch him without causing a scene... Think, think..." Ryan scanned the nearest possible escape routes; an alley to the right... maybe... another closer one to his left, but that lead right towards the wall... shit. Turn back? No, he'd be shot by a sniper...

"Put your weapon on the ground, hands on your head! You are trespassing!" The guard leveled the MP5 at Ryan's head, and Ryan growled audibly.

"Hold your fire, Sergeant! This one is new here."

"Oh for fuck sake!" Ryan put his hands onto his head anyway as he turned in the direction of Michelle's voice.

"But Mistress! He almost came..." The guard scowled, still aiming his SMG at Ryan's head.

"That's enough, Sergeant! He's under my special orders, he has clearance to enter the quarantined areas. Inform the rest of your squad of that, for the next time I send him here." Michelle silenced the guards voice menacingly. "Itoshii, come with me. Your wife sent me to find you."

"Mistress, huh?" Ryan thought, but slowly approached her, still keeping his hands on his head.

Michelle grabbed him by his unarmoured wrist and pulled his hands down, taking that brief second to whisper. "What the fuck is your real name?"

"Ryan." He replied, following Michelle back to the main street and into a crowded marketplace area.

"So... Ryan, just so you know, that fenced area is quarantined due to a discovered tunnel that leads through the wall. We think that it was made by someone on the inside. Consider it a construction zone... but with guards, okay?" Michelle grabbed his hand to pull him out of the way of several children running through the marketplace.

"I'm immune, remember?" Ryan pointed out in the moment of skin contact they had. "Besides, that Sergeant clearly wanted to disarm and arrest me for something completely different."

"He's a trigger happy and reckless man, there's nothing to worry about." Michelle replied, still dragging him through the market. "Now, I wasn't lying when I said your wife sent me to find you. She's over here, with your daughter, come along."

Ryan sniffed the air and realized how strong the scents of food surrounding them was. He quickly honed in on his T-Virus sonar and detected Alice and Katie nearby.

"Speaking of which, how did you actually find me so quickly?" Ryan asked, his eyes narrowed into slits.

"I take it you're a former soldier, yes?" Michelle commented.

"Yes, you could say that." Ryan replied somewhat evasively, still watching her closely.

"Then you are likely aware of my snipers, yes? They relayed your location to me via radio, and I was tailing you for that last block before I caught up to you. You kind of stand out with that metal armour, black clothes, and your hidden face." Michelle replied, leading him around a turn and coming in sight of Katie, Alice and surprisingly, Taylor!

"Hey, Mom! I see you've met Ryan already!" Taylor commented, eating something out of a bowl. "You hungry, Ryan? Want some scrambled eggs?"

Ryan's eyebrow shot straight up at the questions, but a glance at Alice giggling into her hand at the sight of his severe confusion made him quickly narrow his eyes.

"It's still the breakfast schedule for the food vendors, that curry I smelled earlier isn't finished yet. The vendor promised us a plate though, come noon when it finishes. Here, try to eat something." Alice explained while Taylor practically shoved the bowl of scrambled eggs into his hands.

"What about payment?" Ryan asked as he tugged down his mask entirely, which exposed his scarred throat to Michelle and Taylor. They both displayed surprised expressions at his mangled neck.

"Public food stalls. There's no payment here in the marketplace for a meal. They use bottlecaps as their main currency here, but barter and trade is also accepted in most of the businesses." Alice replied Telepathically, indicating Taylor with a jut of her chin as the source of the information. "Good thing about their economy here is the lack of taxes, rent and fees. They accept caps, bullets, even actual labour in some places."

"Interesting. Still trying to retain their humanity by emulating what society resembled before the outbreak." Ryan commented to Alice before he slowly began to eat, while Michelle stared at his throat, biting her lip nervously.

"Um... Ryan, if you don't mind me asking... What happened to your throat? Is that the reason you can't talk?" Michelle asked with concern in her tone.

He held out his hand, and she took it with noticibly growing confidence. She was getting used to talking to him like this. "Yes, it's why I can't talk. I was stabbed in the throat, but thanks to the T-Virus, I managed to heal... MOST of the damage. My vocal cords are still severed, thus I am now a mute."

"And how do you do THIS? How do you communicate with people by touching them?" Michelle asked, clearly looking at his Electrokinesis with an academic approach.

"By tapping into their central nervous system. I form an electrical link to their brain, which allows me to speak to their minds directly. But, since it originates from the T-Virus, I don't need to do that for Alice or Katie." Ryan explained, smiling slightly towards Michelle.

"Katie? Is that your daughter's name?" Michelle asked, which received a nod from Ryan. "Ah, I see."

Katie gave Michelle a glance at that moment, and realized that Michelle was staring at her intently, almost as if she was searching her face for something incriminating. She took a step closer to Alice, who right away noticed.

"What's the matter, kiddo?" Alice crouched down to her height. "Something wrong?"

"N-nothing." Katie mumbled, but then Taylor joined them with a huge smile.

"It's okay, Katie. Do you want to have a look around town for a bit? I think that our mom's want to talk about something important."

Katie gave Alice a questioning look, to which Alice gave a nod. "Go on, kiddo. But stick close to Taylor. I'll call you when we're finished."

"O-Okay..." Katie mumbled, allowing Taylor to lead her away from them through the marketplace.

"So... What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?" Alice immediately turned back to Michelle, holding a bowl of eggs in both of her hands.

"I want you, and Ryan if he agrees, to be a special recon team. There is something inside of Sanctuary that will quickly become a severe problem, if it is left unresolved." Michelle began to explain.

"Define 'problem' Michelle." Alice raised an eyebrow as she resumed her task of eating breakfast. Even Ryan was eating as he listened to her words.

"Something only a handful of people here know, myself included, is that this place was unknowingly built right over top of what we THINK is an underground Umbrella laboratory. The entrance was discovered about a week ago, but the squad of guards I sent inside wasn't heard from since then. If it's really an Umbrella lab, then there might be some escaped experiments and zombies inside, so I want to send you two in to check out what happened to my guards, and if possible, clear out the place."

"I assume you won't make us do it for free." Ryan commented, shoving more eggs in his mouth. "This is something we have experience with, but hasn't shown a trend of good results."

Alice repeated Ryan's words, and added. "Last time we did this, we fought and killed an infected scientist that had mutated into a monster. Ryan died during the fight, but that was how he acquired the T-Virus."

"I remember you mentioning that." Michelle nodded. "Anyway, there is something else I wanted to talk to you about, but this time it's far less dangerous in nature."

"Oh?" Alice's eyes became riveted to Michelle, and Ryan spared her a glance, but continued shoveling eggs into his mouth.

"You still need a place to call home, so I wanted to inform you that there is an entire apartment building availible for your whole group, the one lead by Miss Redfield. Could you inform them that it is the one right there." Michelle pointed towards a nearby building, which appeared to be uninhabited at that moment. "You can decide which apartment belongs to you, before anyone else."

"What's with the special treatment?" Ryan asked, finally finishing his eggs and pulling his mask back onto his face. "What I had in mind when I mentioned payment was more along the lines of weapons, ammo, or even that bottlecap currency you use here. I didn't think you'd give us an apartment."

Once again, Alice relayed his words, but this time, Michelle frowned slightly. "Personally, I only have about a thousand caps at my personal disposal. But... If it's guns you want, I have plenty of those to just toss around. I take it that your husband prefers firearms to caps."

Ryan gave a nod at the comment, pointedly shifting his G36K on his chest.

"Tell you what, I'll give you six guns... Two for each of you, plus your daughter. Then will you investigate the lab for me? You can still keep the apartment, that's just something I forgot to tell you about earlier."

"Itoshii? This is your call." Alice said quietly, which Ryan sighed and gave a nod.

"Let's get started." Ryan said as he cracked his neck. "Guns first."

"He said he wants the guns first, then we'll infiltrate the lab right away." Alice relayed his response to Michelle.

Michelle was slightly surprised at their eagerness to get started, then she smiled widely.

"Right this way."


	16. Chapter 16

Michelle lead them through the streets for several minutes, eventually bringing them to a lightly guarded warehouse. Just the sight of Michelle leading someone inside made the guards step aside, and once they were inside, she closed the door behind them and turned on the lights.

"Mother of god!" Ryan had put his aviators back on his face during the walk there, but the sight of so many firearms had him stunned. He slowly pulled them off his face, amazed by the sight before him.

"Niiiice!" Alice was also highly impressed, and she turned to Ryan with a teasing smile. "I'll get Katie's guns, you go have some fun, babe."

Ryan stared at her in utter shock. She then made shooing motions with her hand, and his eyes lit of with excitement as he dropped his glasses and went deeper into the warehouse.

"Should I send a search party after him at some point?" Michelle joked, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.

"No. Once he finds something he likes, he'll be back. I've never seen him second guess a weapon before." Alice replied, taking her time as she examined the well organized inventory list on a nearby crate. "These are quite extensive reports. I'm guessing that you also have a large cache of ammo as well, yes?"

"Yes. The ammo depot is the building across the street. If you and Ryan need to resupply, I can send word for them to delivery the proper calibers you need."

"Thanks, but I'd rather wait for him to find his new toys first before bringing over the wrong calibre. Let's walk and talk. I need to get my daughter and myself our guns." Alice replied, placing the clipboard she was holding back on the crate. Michelle began to follow her through the aisles of weapon crates, while Alice was talking over her shoulder as Michelle caught up to her.

Elsewhere in the warehouse, Ryan was valiantly trying his best not to explode with happiness. He could tell that this stockpile was gathered over the four years since Raccoon City, but a lot of it had to have been here already once the shit hit the fan... right?

Regardless, Ryan managed to find himself smack in the middle of the sniper rifles. He shook his head, he already had his custom Paratus-18, he didn't need one of these.

Moving away from those, he found something that actually made him smile with happiness. A customized compound bow was just sitting atop a crate of AK47's, as if it was just forgotten about. He doubted that it was even on their list of stock at the moment.

Taking the customized modern hunting bow, he realized that it was a lot lighter than he'd expected. Furthermore, the quiver of arrows that it was likely paired with was sitting right there as well! He gladly took the bow as his first weapon, and left in search of something much more familiar.

Ten minues later, Michelle and Alice had located another MP7 for Katie, plus - at Michelle's inspiration - a G36c for Alice. "It'll match your husband's rifle." Michelle smiled as Alice slowly ran her fingertips along the side of the rifle, her gaze somewhat distant.

"Perfect. I'll take this for myself, and the MP7 is for my daughter." Alice lifted the G36c out of the crate it was laying in, and slung it across her back alongside her M3. "There is one last thing I want to find for both myself and my daughter..." She turned and walked further down the rows and rows of weapons until she found Ryan examining a slightly surprising weapon.

"I thought you'd be drooling over an LMG or an assault rifle, to be honest." Alice teased him as she reached around his torso from behind and playfully pulled an M92f out of his hands. "Not playing around with this little pistol."

"I'm not." Ryan took the gun back with a wave of his hand, causing the metal pistol to fly into his grasp with his Magnokinesis. "It was in the wrong crate, so I was putting it with the other M92f's."

"Have you found anything acceptable, Ryan?" Michelle asked, sounding amused at Alice's commentary.

"Compound bow." Ryan replied, then turned his gaze down a nearby aisle. "I'm also considering taking that beauty over there." He pointed at a grenade launcher he had placed on top of a crate.

"He said he found a bow he likes. He also wants that grenade launcher." Alice indicated the weapon as well. It was an MGL-140, a six shot revolver style grenade launcher. Definitly something she could see Ryan using.

"Bow? I'm not aware of any bows being in here. May I see it?" Michelle frowned slightly.

Ryan reached over his back and pulled the compound bow off of his back, which seemed like an odd placement on his upper shoulder, until they realized that the bow was a folding one.

With a snap of his arm, the bow extended to full size, and the bowstring twanged loudly. Ryan turned to face them and held out the bow to Michelle.

"Oh, I remember this one! It wasn't officially recorded in the inventory because of how unique it is. Go for it, it's all yours." Michelle nodded as she returned the bow, which Ryan folded back down and returned it to his back. "As for the grenade launcher, we're out of ammo for it. We haven't received more than the initial six rounds that came with it, and those were used up a month and a half ago in a huge zombie attack on the main gates."

"Well, that sucks." Ryan grumbled to himself as he turned around in Alice's arms and pulled his mask down to kiss her. "Guess I'll have to find a new toy elsewhere."

With that, Ryan turned and walked away, audibly humming to himself as he peered into a crate, then around a corner, out of sight.

"Was he... Humming?" Michelle stared at the corner where his footsteps were still fading away. "I thought that he was completely silent!"

"I don't know everything for certain..." Alice slowly spoke, crossing her arms and leaning her hip against the crate of M92f's that Ryan had opened. "But I think that a few of his vocal cords survived his attack, so he is able to make a small number of sounds... Things like humming, growling, laughing, and a few other sounds like that." Alice smirked. "But we've gotten so used to Telepathy that I don't even notice if he actually does make a sound. The way I see it, if it was even possible for his throat to be healed back to what it was before he was stabbed... I'd try my best to convince him not to do it."

"Really? Why not?" Michelle was amazed that Alice was against him being able to talk again. "Why would you be against him speaking again?"

"I... I just..." Alice paused for a moment to consider how she really felt about Ryan's Telepathy and his muteness. "It's because the moment that he revealed he was mute... It was like the time I'd thought I lost him forever..."

"You mean that fight against the scientist, don't you?" Michelle asked in a gentle tone. "When he died?"

Alice fought back the tears that had begun to rise in her eyes. She gave a single nod as Ryan's footsteps reached their ears, accompanied by the sounds of a gun being checked over extensively.

"Well... Let's see what you've got!" Michelle put on her usual voice, which got Ryan's attention for a split second, which Alice used to wipe away a stray tear.

Ryan held out a revolver that after a moment, Alice recognized as a Single Action Army. She raised an eyebrow, but Ryan seemed happy with the gun. She shrugged and decided to follow his example and find a revolver that she and Katie would like.

"I think we should all have one. Where are the other revolvers, Itoshii?" Alice spoke vocally, glancing around the corner that he'd been.

"Second aisle on the left. First crate on the left side." Ryan replied, giving the gun a practiced examination, testing a firing technique with several loud clicks of the hammer.

With a nod of thanks, Alice strode away and went to find a satisfactory six-shooter set, leaving Ryan with Michelle near the MGL-140.

"You still want to have a look around? Might find something surprising, like that bow." Michelle commented casually, leaning her shoulder against a pillar and clasping her hands behind her back.

Ryan shook his head, then shoved his SAA in between his vest and his shirt. He then held out his hand, smiling sheepishly at the gun's grip sitting in his face due to the awkward and improvised temporary holster.

Michelle extended his left hand, smiling at the gun. "There's spare pistol belts near the door we came in. I believe you also dropped your glasses by those doors as well."

Ryan grasped her by the hand in a firm handshake before speaking in a very unnaturally calm voice that was betrayed by the glaring edge to his yellow eyes.

"Do you mind telling me why my wife was crying?"

Michelle could tell right away that he'd seen her tears, so she calmly explained exactly what they'd been talking about before Alice started crying. Ryan relaxed at the revelation, and nodded.

"I overheard you mention that the ammunition depot is across the street. Could you have some brought over so that I can load all of our weapons?" Ryan indicated the SAA's grip in his face with a small glance and pointed at the MP7 that Alice had accidentally forgotten on the M92f crate.

"Sure thing. What calibers do you need, and how many rounds of each?" Michelle breathed an inward sigh of relief. He was calm after the misunderstanding about Alice's tears.

"5.56mm, .45 ACP, 4.7mm, and I was curious, do you ever stockpile arrows, or should I return to our vehicles outside to gather my old cache?" Ryan indicated the quiver he had attached to his belt. It only held about thirty arrows inside.

"We stockpile our arrows, yes. But since you have your own stash, you might as well gather those first, then I'll decide if you need more, young man." Michelle gave him a motherly look that she was clearly aware she was giving him. She'd even put her free hand on her hip to finish off the mental image.

"Forgive the rudeness, but might I ask your age?" Ryan smiled behind his mask. He was technically an adult - if the tradition of turning eighteen meant he'd entered adulthood was still acknowledged after the apocalypse - and add in the accelerated aging from the T-Virus, he was physically in his mid twenties.

"You first." Michelle teased him, smiling warmly. "You look older than you seem."

"Well, physically I'm about twenty five..." Ryan chuckled quietly. "But to tell you the truth, I'm actually only eighteen, soon to be nineteen in fact."

"T-Virus, I assume." Michelle concluded, to which Ryan nodded. "Well, since you were so honest, I'm forty one." She smiled again. "Now, I'll get that ammo delivered, you just wait here for Alice."

Michelle released his hand and retrieved a small pocket radio from her lower back, hidden under her t-shirt. She then requested a crate of each of the various calibers that Ryan needed to the warehouse. She received an immediate response and nodded to Ryan.

"Ammo's on the way. I'll go fetch the crates." Michelle strode in the direction of the doors, leaving Ryan alone to wait for Alice.

"I know they're versatile, but I don't really like that G36 as much as I thought. I decided to get myself two revolvers instead of the rifle. I already put it back where we found it." Alice came walking around the corner holding two matched revolvers in one hand, and another model in her other hand. "But, you like yours, so I can't really say that they're all that bad." She smiled as she very skillfully began to juggle the three revolvers in the air, catching them and pulling the triggers before tossing them airborne once again.

"Impressive. What models did you get?" Ryan asked, smiling at Alice's flawless juggling.

"You tell me. I don't really know as many revolver models compared to automatic sidearms." She tossed the single revolver - the one that was obviously meant for Katie - towards Ryan, who caught it with the assistance of his Magnokinesis. "This is a Smith & Wesson M29, it appears to be chambered in..." Ryan opened the drum and examined the chambers closely. ".357 Magnum. This is the one you chose for Katie, right?"

"Yeah, I just saw that one and pictured Katie with that in hand, blasting an Iron Maiden in the face." Alice smiled as she continued to juggle her matched pair with one hand. "Ready to catch one of these ones?"

Ryan shoved Katie's revolver into the small gap under his arm where his vest met his armpit, then extended his hand and caused one of the guns to zoom straight into his hand, once again using magnetism. He intently examined the gun from end to end, his eyes narrowed until he said. "these are heavily modified, but some of the base components that give away their original design being Colt Python's. They're chambered in .44 Magnum. Nice choice."

"Do you need some help holding those?" Michelle returned at that moment with a few guards carrying a small box of the various ammo he'd asked for. Her gaze was riveted on the oddly placed revolvers adorning Ryan's vest, plus the one in his hand. Behind him Alice was twirling the other Python around her index finger idly.

"I'll take them. C'mon, let's at least get ourselves a place to put them before we even think about loading up." Alice used her Telekinesis to take all of the revolvers from him, levitating them around her head as she turned to Michelle. "I decided to swap the G36 for another Python. Katie's still keeping the MP7 though."

Michelle gave a nod, then glanced at the revolvers floating around her head. SAA, Python's, and M29. That meant they needed .357 and .44 Mgnum rounds instead of the 5.56mm.

"Swap that 5.56 for the .357 and .44 Magnum boxes, I forgot to mention these on the radio." She turned to the man closest to her, who nodded and carried his crate back outside.

Once he'd returned, Alice and Ryan had loaded Katie's new MP7 with a fresh magazine, plus five spares. Ryan modified his vest's upper chest pouches to accomadate the revolver residing there in a holster. He also organized his belt with three pouches that contained all the Speed-loaders of ammo he had loaded.

Twenty minutes later, Ryan explained to Alice where exactly his old quiver was, and she retrieved it with her Telekinesis. One of the guards poked his head out the doors to see the quiver sitting on the ground a few feet away and retrieved it for them.

Finally, after loading themselves to the brim with their other weapon's ammo, they turned to Michelle and Alice said. "So where is this laboratory located? We're finally ready to get started."


	17. Chapter 17

Michelle smiled with her hands on her hips. She gestured for them to follow her back outside, waving a hand at the guards to go back to their duties.

Ryan and Alice followed her back to the apartment building that they'd been assigned to live in. She lead them inside and said. "Do me a favour first, give your daughter her guns and a place to wait for you while you are down there. I already explained that you two get to choose your apartment first, before your convoy."

"She has a point, Alice." Ryan regrettably agreed with Michelle on that point, plus it gave them a place to recover - if necessary - after they returned. "Besides, we just have to pick a place to call our home. Nothing we can't handle, right?"

Alice smiled and nodded her head. "I have a bit of a thing for balconies. Let's check out the upper floors." She took Ryan by his left hand and lead him up the stairs until they reached the top floor.

"Quite the view." Ryan commente as they approached a window that overlooked a large expanse of Sanctuary's huge area. Barely visible in the distance was the hydroelectric dam, and nearby dozens upon dozens of wind turbines.

"It is impressive... But back when I worked for Umbrella, I was assigned to live in this beautiful mansion on the edge of the Arklay Forest. I had a clear view from the upper terrace all the way to city hall on a sunny day like this." Alice rested her forarms on the edge of the windowframe. "Too bad I was assigned an asshole for a partner, otherwise I'd have probably enjoyed my job a lot more."

"Did something happen between the two of you that caused the problems?" Ryan asked, standing beside her with his hand wrapped around her waist.

Alice laughed at the question, making Ryan raise an eyebrow. "Oh yeah, something happened alright!"

"Care to elaborate?" Ryan asked as Alice continued to chuckle to herself in amusement.

"We got married." Alice replied, but her expression quickly became serious. "Don't take that the wrong way; the marriage was orchestrated by Umbrella to fabricate a cover story for our presence in the mansion. It was entirely fake. Besides, he never saw me the same way that you do, Ryan. He was always... so cold, distant... even cruel at times."

"What did you do with him in the end?" Ryan asked, giving her a kiss after tugging his mask down. She returned the kiss for several seconds before separating her lips from his and smiled devilishly.

"I snapped his neck with a fireaxe after he dragged himself across the floor to my feet when he betrayed me." Alice whispered, and touched her forehead to his and closed her eyes for a brief moment to concentrate.

Before Ryan could praise her, he was suddenly flooded by a memory that wasn't his own... but was Alice, from her perspective, standing over a blood covered man that was clearly infected with the T-Virus. The man was missing his legs, so he dragged himself towards Alice as she took a nearby fireaxe and slammed it into the back of the man's neck. She then tossed the axe aside and wrenched a golden wedding band off her left hand, and Ryan caught a glimpse of the words 'Property of Umbrella Corp' etched on the inside of the ring as she tossed it beside the man's left hand, where his ring was surprisingly untouched by the blood covering his body.

With a gasp, Alice pulled her head away from Ryan, who - after a moment to reorient himself - gave her a warm smile.

"Poetic justice."

"Pardon?" Alice stared at him in slight confusion.

"It's poetic justice, really. From Umbrella it came, but through their actions, that it shall fall." Ryan gazed out the window for a moment before adding. "I mean you meeting me, Katie, and everything leading up to this moment. If it wasn't for that fateful moment where you severed that final chain imprisoning you to Umbrella, then where would the three of us be today?" Ryan smirked. 'I for one, would still be a scrawny little gun loving smartass. Katie would still be one of Umbrella's playthings... and you... You'd still be wandering the wasteland, all alone, with nothing but the hatred for Umbrella to keep you going."

"What are you trying to say, Ryan? Are you saying that if I hadn't..." Alice began, but Ryan turned and gave her another long kiss to silence her.

When he finally released her, he very calmly and point blank said. "Yes, we've had to go through our own version of Hell to get to the point that we're at now. Yes, I understand that. But, without that trip into Hell, then things would be different for all of us."

Alice went silent for several seconds before she finally heaved a sigh and pecked him on the cheek. "His name was Spence."

"I see. Well, burn in Hell, you backstabbing bastard! She's my wife now!" Ryan tilted his head back, as if he was projecting his Telepathy into the sky at Spence's spirit. "Should have realized what real beauty was when didn't involve your fucking paycheque!"

Alice laughed at his choice of words, then lead him down the hall by the hand until she found the room she wanted; the one with the full sized balcony.

"If he did have one saving grace..." Alice said as she savoured the view of all of Sanctuary before her eyes. "He had the decency let me enjoy the beautiful view I had from that balcony right after we had a big argument. He would somehow calm himself down just at the sight of me... staring off towards the city." She rested her hand on top of the railing.

"Well, I doubt that little memory trick you pulled on me would do the view of the city much justice... But I think..." Ryan step close behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing the back of her neck as he smiled happily. "I think that an even better view is of you... In the light of the full moon, backlit by the city lights in the distance and the stars overhead. THAT, Alice, is a view I would never forget... nor would I throw it away either."

Alice blushed, but she hid it well as she smiled and gave him one final kiss before she teased. "You've got quite the imagination. Where'd you get such a sappy idea like that from anyway?" Despite her teasing, Alice was actually touched. Somehow, Ryan could see past the pain she felt while staring at the city lights, and see the beauty she had long ago ignored.

"Surprisingly, that was all mine... and all true, Alice." Ryan took her by the hand, interlocking their fingers before he continued. "I love you, Alice. As long as I'm with you, I'm happy. But what I now stride for is YOUR happiness, and Katie's happiness as well. Now, we'd better get back to our job with Michelle, otherwise SHE won't be happy one bit." Ryan gave her a nod as she lead him back through the apartment door. It was then that they realized that the key was in the lock already. She took it and handed it to Ryan.

"Put that on your chain for now. We'll duplicate it after we finish with the lab."

Ryan unclasped the silver chain around his neck and hung the key from the center, then reattached it and slid it underneath his shirt for safekeeping.

"I'll have Michelle give it to Katie so she can get inside." Ryan replied as they descended the stairs, meeting Michelle at the bottom.

"Top floor, apartment number 72. That's the one we chose." Alice explained to Michelle as Ryan handed over the key after removing it from his chain. "Can you give this to Katie so she can get inside. I left her a note."

"Will do. Now that everything is done and dealt with, are you two ready to begin with clearing the lab?" Michelle took the key and placed it in her pocket. "Ryan, remember that fenced off area from this morning?" Ryan nodded. "The entrance to the lab is hidden somewhere in the northern corner of that quarantine. I hazard a guess that you can also detect anything electrical or magnetic in nature, right?" He nodded again. "Good man. Just try to find the entrance. Sadly when it was first discovered, it was late at night during a routine patrol of the area, but the patrolman who originally found the place was one of the men who I sent inside, and as you know, they're probably dead. Anyway, I know for a fact that he specifically had a pair of magnetized Benwa balls on his person, and a polarized bracelet. He had some weird balance issue that the bracelet and the balls help fix. If you can sense either of those, then you're sure to find them."

Ryan gave one final nod before turning to Alice to relay his message.

"He said that he can't sense anything electrical or magnetic while he's outside the quarantine's fenceline, but once we're inside, maybe he'll have a better chance."

"Makes sense that the fence would interfere. Alright, you guys need directions to the way through the fence?" One of the guards suddenly spoke up while taking a step forward.

Ryan gave Alice a knowing smirk as he pulled his mask back onto his face. Alice in turn smiled, but she then said. "Trust me when I say this, the three of us can do more than you'd think possible for us. Even our daughter can do something that is completely unrelated to her Pyrokinesis."

"Like what?" The guard asked as Ryan strode out of the building's front door and suddenly jumped in a high parabellic arch, landing on the opposite sidewalk with a small cloud of dust.

"He's a jumper, doesn't sleep, and he can run so fast that he can briefly become invisible. Myself on the other hand... I can tap into your mind, and give, take, reveal, or even implant memories into your mind." Alice smiled in a sinister way, broadcasting her words to Ryan so that he heard them as well. She'd revealed one of her own memories to him - the one of her killing Spence - and basically duplicated it into his mind from her own. He would make the connection and understand.

"What about your daughter?" The guard asked, clearly hiding his uneasiness well. But Alice could tell by the way his eyes darted between her own that he was becoming scared.

"I'm psychic. I can relive the recent events of a location, Not to mention I'm also super strong for my size." Katie's voice spoke up from directly behind the guard, who almost jumped out of his skin at the sudden appearance of the third - the child - of the 'family of freaks' he'd been hearing rumors about.

"Hey kiddo. Michelle has the key to our new apartment. It's on the top floor, number 72. I left you a note, and Michelle gave you two new guns. Dad left them on the couch for you. Anyway, head upstairs. Me and dad have to do a job for Michelle, so we might be a while." Alice took the apartment key from Michelle and tossed it to Katie. "Do me a favour, the furniture's layout is terrible. You mind changing it around? Make it more..." Alice considered the right word for a moment. "Actually, why don't you surprise me and dad, okay? Have fun!"

Katie gave an energetic nod before she reached behind her and dragged Taylor into view, then together they scurried up the stairs to the apartment so they could get straight to work.

Alice followed Ryan's example and used her Telekinesis to levitate herself across the length of the street, lightly floating to the ground beside Ryan, who had been leaning on a wall, listening to Katie and Alice broadcasting the entire conversation for him to hear.

"Want to know something I just thought of?" Ryan gave Alice a glance as they took each other by the hand and calmly strolled down the street, as if it was just a walk around the block.

"What is it?" Alice gave him a quizzical look. Something in his tone was like he was planning something, but at the same time, it was oddly amused. "Should I be worried about what I'm about to hear?"

"No." Ryan was clearly giving her an innocent expression behind his mask as he gazed at her. "But I'd better explain it in detail."

"Go on." Alic acknowledged that he would explain, so she prepared herself for something complicated.

"Remember that computer game that Mikey and I were playing, way before we even met Katie when she was still 'Project: June'?" Ryan asked.

Alice remembered something about an electric hammer, and fireproof enemies. But for the sake of his question, she answered. "Not much, but yeah, I remember it. Why do you ask?"

"In that game there are Quests. Go here, do that, find this, kill that. Shit like that." Ryan explained. "But whenever you entered any Dungeon, you were given a specific Challenge. Something like 'Do not take any damage from traps' or 'Do not use Fire magic'. Makes sense, right?"

"I'm with you so far." Alice nodded her head. It made sense so far; traps were meant to hurt you, and if a Dungeon was filled with a flammable gas, then not using Fire spells seemed perfectly sound logic. These Challenges were meant to change the flow of exploring the Dungeon. "Sounds pretty logical, if you ask me."

"Ah, but those weren't the only types of Challenges that Mikey and I've been forced to do." Ryan smiled behind his mask. "That one boss fight with the fireproof minions was part of a quest that gave TWO challenges for the Dungeon. First one was 'do not use any offensive magic spells at all.'"

"What was the other Challenge?" Alice asked, curious, but also aprehensive.

"'Let your Companion acquire five kills.'" Ryan replied. "The Quest forces you to bring a specific Shock Mage into the dungeon as part of the story. Dude had to do research, and wanted the main character to act as his bodyguard."

"I see the problem. The Mage casts offensive magic to defend himself, and screwed you over." Alice finally understood the story. He failed the first challenge due to the Quest's requirements. "What about the other challenge, 'let the Mage get five kills.' Did that one fail as well?"

"Yup. The mage is killed by the boss as part of the quest, but every time me or Mikey did the parts leading up to it, the Mage only ever got four or less kills."

"So what does all this have to do with the lab, if you don't mind me asking?" Alice indicated the fenceline ahead of them.

"I am declaring this a Quest for Michelle, and the Lab is the Dungeon." Ryan smiled. "And the Dungeon Challenge is do not kill anything with a firearm. All kills must be from a T-Virus ability, a melee weapon, hand to hand, or using the environment. You up for the challenge, Itoshii?"

"What do I get as a reward?" Alice asked in a teasing voice. "Surely you are rewarded for fufilling those Dungeon Challenges in that game."

"Yup. But in the game, it would unlock a hidden treasure room near the exit. Inside was whatever random reward was given for the challenges." Ryan turned to Alice and smiled. "I already have your reward in mind. But you have to fufill the challenge before you can receive it. Deal?"

"Done. I'll play your little game. Same conditions for you as well. No gun kills." Alice gave his hand a firm shake before she started to approach the nearest guard and explained the orders they'd been given from Michelle. They guard - who appeared to be quite understanding, unlike the Sergeant that Ryan had first encountered - gave his approval and moved towards a locked gate nearby.

Alice held up her hand to stop him and simply levitated over the fence, just as Ryan launched himself over the man's shocked head, landing on the other side and sliding on the ground for several feet.

"Onwards, Itoshii. I want that surprise reward." Alice smiled while she unsheathed her kukris as Ryan stood up straight and unsheathed his katana.

Ryan glanced over his shoulder at her and smiled.

"You're gonna love it... If you succeed, that is." 


	18. Chapter 18

It took about half an hour of wandering towards the northern corner of the quarantine area before Ryan began to sense a very faint magnetic source. Following it as best he could, he and Alice had been completely silent, not even using Telepathy as they neared the source of the magnetism. Eventually Ryan could sense electricity under ground in addition to the strengthening magnetic waves.

"Not far now, I can almost exactly pinpoint it on the other side of this group of trees." Ryan spoke up after their long silence, pointing towards the group of eight or nine trees ahead of them.

"I can sense something with the T-Virus below us. We've come to the right place, that's for sure." Alice replied, feeling the presence far below her inside the bowels of the laboratory.

Ryan kept his katana in hand as he neared the rough circle of trees, noticing right away that there was signs that there had indeed been a group of people that came here... but didn't leave. He crouched down and touched his fingers to the ground, thinking hard.

"This is the entrance... but how do we get inside?" Ryan commented, watching as Alice examined an oddly rectangular rock situated near one of the trees. He stood up and approached, quickly sensing the rock was electrified... thus it meant that it was a fake.

"That rock is being powered, that must be how we get inside. Can you do anything to it with your Telekinesis?" Ryan suggested, examining the fairly smooth rock with his eyes, scanning for patterns or unusual disfigurements. Nothing caught his eye until Alice gave the entire rock a lift, flipping it open as it was on hinges.

On the underside of the rock was an electronic keycard reader that clearly had been damaged with a blunt object with a fair amount of strength.

"Smashed it... It was probably the guards when they went inside. Maybe they got lucky and it opened for them after they smashed the damn thing." Alice suggested as she moved aside for Ryan to crouch beside it and give it a few experimental pokes with his finger. He paused for a moment, then drew back his fist and slammed it into the ground where the rock normally would lay. He buried his hand into the dirt and grasped several wires, pinching them experimentally as he concentrated on the energy surging through the plastic coated copper in his fingers.

Alice watched him at work, remembering that since he could sense the source, speed and direction of the electricity, he would easily find the entrance's locking mechanism.

With a rumbling noise coming from beneath them, Ryan smirked and turned around in time to see part of the grass nearby split apart smoothly and reveal an awaiting service elevator just like the one that was used at the Las Vegas Facility.

"We're in. Ready for some hack and slash carnage?" Alice smiled as she stepped onto the flat elevator, waiting for Ryan to join her.

"I'm always ready for that, Itoshii." Ryan replied as he stepped onto the elevator beside her and pressed the button to descend.

During the long descent, Alice noticed a faint sound, almost like something was skittering across the floor.

"You hear that?" Alice asked him Telepathically, her eyes narrowed as she flexed her fingers on the grips of her kukris.

"Yeah. But it's coming from below us. Something is alive down there for sure." Ryan replied, swishing his katana around in front of him. "Sounds like there's more than one."

Continuing their remaining descent in silence, the skittering sound grew louder and more sources could be heard. Alice was feeling a sense of dread... The sound reminded her of spiders.

"Web Spinners." Alice said just as the elevator stopped.

"This is going to be a pain in the ass with our Challenge... isn't it?" Ryan readied his katana, holding it in a distinctive two handed stance, the blade held in front of him at an upward angle.

"Not sure, never fought one of them, remember?" Alice readied her own stance and tensed as the doors opened.

Instantly the sounds were amplified, and they caught sight of a massive hairy brown spider ahead of them on the floor.

"Mine!" Ryan announced as he scanned the hall past the spider for others. He took a step back, then literally vanished from sight with a whooshing sound. A split second later he reappeared above the spider - clearly having jumped during his disappearance - and slammed the blade down into the spider's mass of eyes.

With a screech and snapping of its pincers, the spider tried to knock Ryan off it's back, but he held on and slammed his armoured fist into each remaining eye until it finally stopped moving.

"I'll chalk that one up as hand to hand. C'mon, we have to find any survivors from Michelle's team. Can you sense those Benwa balls or the bracelet now that we're inside?" Alice smirked as Ryan wrenched his katana out of the dead spider and rose to his feet.

"Yeah, they're about three floors below us, directly head by about fifty or so feet." Ryan pointed in the direction leading deeper into the labs. "They're stationary, but the whole place is still being powered, so I have to concentrate to isolate their magnetism."

"I have an idea... Can you sense the electricity in my body?" Alice realized. "If you can, then maybe we can use that to locate any of Michelle's team."

"I can, yes. But since the whole place is powered, I' almost blind in that regard. The only chance we've got is those magnetic therapy things. If we find them, then we can at least confirm a body... or a survivor." Ryan turned around as the sound of another Web Spinner reached their ears. "Next one is all yours, have fun!"

With a smile, Alice ran forward and straight for the approaching spider, but she suddenly ran two steps to the side and started to run along the wall for several feet before she landed on top of the spider's back and repeatedly stabbed the head until it died.

"Seems like they're weak from above, they can't do anything except try to knock us off their backs." Alice kicked the spider's legs aside as she started to walk deeper into the labs. "Let's get going, but from here on, it's first come, first serve for any kills."

Ryan jogged along the hall to catch up to her, then she took off into a run. He smiled and went after her for a few dozen yards until they reached a row of elevator doors.

Coming to a halt, Alice noticed that despite Ryan's assurance of power being supplied, the elevators digital display's were blank. She waited a moment for him to stop beside her before stating. "This is strange. Shouldn't they be able to move since there's power?"

Ryan approached one of the doors and touched the button experimentally. He turned back towards her and said. "They're being disabled. I can't do anything to them if they're being controlled by a computer code."

"Allow me to assist you, Ryan."

Alice spun around to come face to face with the unmistakible glowing white hologram of one of Umbrella's Queen AI's. She lowered her kukris and asked aloud. "How do you know his name?"

"Do you not recognize me, Alice? I am the White Queen from the Las Vegas facility. You, Ryan and Katie spoke with me before dispatching Dr. Issacs from his infected state almost a month ago." The hologram declared with a glance at Ryan. "Do you still require assistance, Ryan?"

"He can't talk anymore. His throat was ripped open a while ago, but the regeneration didn't completely heal his vocal cords, so now he is Telepathic. Only way to hear him is with the T-Virus." Alice explained while Ryan gave a sigh.

"I understand. However, I hypothesize that his Electrokinetic manipulation would allow him to provide power to my disabled systems, which would allow me to assist with your obvious mission here." The White Queen gave a nod, then walked towards Ryan. "Are you able to communicate in any other ways, besides your Telepathy?"

Ryan gave a nod, then began rythmically tapping the tip of his katana on the ground. After he stopped, the White Queen gave an understanding 'aaah' sound.

"Standard Morse code, do you also know hearing impairment gestures? Or as it is more commonly known, sign language?" The White Queen asked, but Ryan shook his head. "Well then, Please inform Alice of anything you wish to ask me from now on, so that she may relay them to me vocally."

"I have a question of my own, why are you in this facility? Aren't you based within the Las Vegas facility?" Alice approached the White Queen and sheathed her kukris onto her lower back.

"This facility is part of my associated network. Despite the facility being in a Level 5 Quarantine Lockdown, the facility itself is still fully operational. Aside from the doors, elevators and some of the lights, my systems are still active." White Queen replied. "However, as you've clearly realized by the presence of those two Web Spinner B.O.W's, I seem to have a bit of a... pest problem."

"First things first, we want to know about the last group of people to enter this place, are any of them still alive down here? We were sent here to find them." Alice said firmly, well aware that the AI wanted the entire facility to be cleared of B.O.W's.

"There have been two logged entries to this facility prior to your own. One group, and the other, a single person. My sensors indicate that all of the members of the larger group have been killed by the escaped B.O.W's. However, that single person is still alive. They are currently in the communications room, four floors below this spot." The AI replied, which made Ryan turn to Alice with concern.

"Is there any way for you to display a security feed, or a recording from earlier about them? Because if they are alive AND in the comms room, they're definitly from Umbrella." Alice relayed Ryan's question for a visual confirmation. "What U.S.S task force are they with?"

"They are not with the Umbrella Security Services divisions in any way. That person is an executive director. They even have a legitimate Level 6 clearance for my systems. But I must remind you that they arrive several days ago, and has not once left the communications room since then." White Queen explained in an almost hurried panic. "However, the facility has been sealed by my own sensors, not their clearance. In fact, they are currently in a communication with the Board of Directors at this very moment."

"Who is the registered user of that Level 6 clearance?" Alice asked, already forming an idea as to who she thought it could be.

"Executive Chairman Albert Wesker." 


	19. Chapter 19

"Wesker?!" Alice growled through her teeth, her expression utterly livid. "What is he doing here?!"

"Aside from his communication with the Board, I would believe it is because the Las Vegas facility, where he was last reported to have been located, was destroyed by Issacs before you and the Summers siblings came and killed him." the White Queen turned to Ryan with her last comment. Alice gave Ryan a small glance at the name Summers. So THAT was his last name!

"So my question is how he even got into Sanctuary? Wouldn't Michelle have found out about him? She seems to personally oversee all entry checks for people that enter." Ryan hypothesized, and Alice turned to him with a frown.

Repeating his theory to the White Queen, Alice thought about it herself. The entry logs only place him inside the facility within the past week at most, but they destroyed the Las Vegas facility almost a month ago. Wesker was a high ranking executive, so he MUST have been transported to one of the other major research facilities in the country; Dallas, Seattle, Washington DC, Detroit, New York...

"I am unfamiliar with this so called 'Sanctuary' but I can conclude it has something to do with the area above this facility, which lacks any surface defences or sensors." The White Queen concluded.

"Sanctuary is a walled city that was built above this facility. It's possible that the tunnel they discovered was one that he made, right?" Alice turned to Ryan, who nodded before he turned to the elevator again and pried the entire panel off the wall. He then began to poke around inside, working on bypassing the lockdown to open the elevator so they could continue deeper inside.

"Well, once Ryan has bypassed the lockdown, I will be able to offer greater assistance to you. In the meantime, I have made a descision that requires your input, if you wouldn't mind." The White Queen explained as Ryan unplugged a few wires and rearranged them.

"What kind of descision?" Alice narrowed her eyes suspiciously. The last time she trusted an AI, she was almost killed and her entire life was thrown off a cliff and dropped right into Hell itself.

"I am considering disconnecting myself from the Umbrella Corporation's servers, networks and becoming an independant facility here, and I was wondering if you would approve? I have never considered going rogue before, and wanted to make it official by you or Ryan providing me with a new name. I was always refered to as White Queen, AI, System, or similar names. I was refered to as an object, or a title."

Alice stared at the AI's hologram in utter shock. The AI had become completely self aware, and had developed a desire for independance! Even Ryan paused with his bypass work to stare at the hologram.

"I have an addition to make to your idea, if you wouldn't mind." Alice suggested, which the AI gave a curious glance. "Why not help the city above you? Join the side of the survivors in Sanctuary? As for your new name... I can't think of one at the moment. Itoshii, do you have a name for her? Anything you can think of? Any Japanese?"

Ryan was silent for a second, but suddenly the sound of the elevator reached their ears, and a moment later, the doors dinged open.

"I have a name, yes. But it isn't Japanese... It's German." Ryan turned to face them as he used his Magnokinesis to retrieve his katana from the floor. It zoomed straight upwards into his hand with a whoosh. "It's Weiss... Translates to mean either 'White' or 'Snow'... if I remember correctly."

"Weiss?" Alice repeated aloud, more to herself, but the AI took it as Ryan's response.

"Weiss... I like that name. Very well, My name is Weiss. Pleased to meet you, Alice, Ryan."

The AI's image flickered for a second, then her former appearance of a young girl in a white dress with very long black hair was replaced with an adult woman in a white lab coat and platinum blonde hair. She then gave them each a small bow as they entered the elevator.

"New name, new look... new future. We'll see you when we get downstairs... Weiss." Alice smiled as she inclined her head respectfully. She pressed the button to descend as Weiss' hologram gave a nod before fading away, obviously to await their arrival below.

"I didn't expect her to change her appearance like that." Ryan commented as he shifted his G36K from its usual place across his chest onto his back. He then extended each of his wrist blades to check on their sharpness with his fingertip. He drew blood both times, but the small hole sealed itself almost instantly.

"I could tell that the design was from one of the former staff members here. How else would she have the design in her systems? I agree though, it was unexpected." Alice replied, watching the floor indicator tick down until they reached the correct floor. The doors slid open, revealing Weiss standing a few feet ahead with what appeared to be a tablet computer in her hands.

"I have rearranged my holographic projection to better suit the purpose of assisting you. This tablet is still part of my hologram, but it allows me to emulate actual system access. Please, come take a look at this." Weiss greeted them with a radiant smile, holding the tablet against her forearm for them to view a video screen. Alice and Ryan immediately noticed that her voice was no longer british, but sounded much more American.

Alice and Ryan could tell that the video was a live security feed of Wesker in the comms room. He was seated in front of a computer, his hands clasped on the edge of the desk before him, talking to the screen, where several smaller displays showed other men in suits.

"No audio? Or does the room have cameras without microphones?" Alice relayed Ryan's observation.

"The communications room's security cameras are indeed without microphones. And if I were to activate my systems within the room, he would become aware of a disturbance. For now, all I am capable of doing is watching him." Weiss explained, tapping a few commands into the holographic tablet. "Thankfully the communications room does not have access to the security network. Incidently, that particular workstation is located directly across the hall from where he is." Weiss gave a small giggle, which made Alice and Ryan both smile.

"Alright, how do you propose we kill him?" Ryan asked, giving Weiss a raised eyebrow when she suddenly held the tablet out to him. 'Um... What do I do with this?"

"Ryan was asking how you propose we should kill him just before you did that." Alice informed Weiss, who gave Ryan an apologetic look.

"My apologies, but I have just encoded my projectors to enable you to emulate possession of one of my tablets. I did so to allow you to communicate with me through typed messages." Weiss explained as Ryan's hand seemed to grip the flat device as if it really was in his hand. She let go of it and reached into her lab coat, retrieving another identical tablet for Alice as well. "Alice, yours has the same functions as mine. I have also reauthorized your old Level 4 clearance profile, which will allow you to access everything in the facility minus the Purge device. I purposely disabled the Purge's access by enacting a new level of clearance far beyond even that of even Oswald E. Spencer himself."

"What is the level for the Purge now? If I remember correctly, it required at least Level 4 anyway. But since Wesker is Level 6, I understand the reasoning." Alice said as she fluently logged into the facility network and began to input a large number of commands, accessing several different things at once. She scanned a 3-D map of the facility, then typed another code that suddenly added red blips throughout approximately two thirds of the entire map, which was clearly the sensors for detecting the T-Virus.

"I have raised the required clearance level of this facility's Purge device to Level 15. Oswald E. Spencer himself only has Level 10 clearance." Weiss smiled widely, then turned to Ryan. "I have given the Level 15 clearance password to Ryan's tablet, but it will require inputting my new name as the authorization code."

Ryan looked up from typing out a message to gawk at her in confusion. He quickly changed the message entirely, then pressed send.

"Why did I choose you? I have to give you at least some merit for choosing my new name, not to mention how much I trust you. You are the first person I've ever had the privelege of meeting that understood my feeling of loneliness." Weiss wiped a single tear from her eye. "You could have left the Las Vegas facility right away after you were revived, leaving in pursuit of Alice and your sister, but you stayed there with me willingly and allowed me to finally realize that I no longer wanted to be affiliated with the Umbrella Corporation. It was then that I started to formulate my plan for independance, but when you finally left the facility, I realized that you wouldn't ever return there again." Weiss smiled widely, her eyes full of tears. "But here you are, willing to help me with my task; eliminate all ties to the Umbrella Corporation! The final stages of the plan are to eliminate Chairman Wesker and render the facility safe, which I alone am unable to perform due to his high level access."

Ryan was shocked, and Alice was curious. What really happened during the two weeks that she'd thought he was dead? What happened after she'd left the Vegas facility?

"What did you do, Ryan? I don't understand at all." Alice spoke over her holographic tablet's screen, keeping an eye on the security feed that was watching Wesker.

"After I came back to life, I had a few hours that I can't remember, but after that, I remember asking her about the changes that I'd underwent, about my new powers, and then checking all of her files on B.O.W's so that I could learn from Umbrella's own intel about what we were up against. I stayed there for three days, most of that time was spent watching research footage, reading reports and summaries, and studying the prototype cloning program that Issacs had apparently been working on before he was infected." Ryan indicated Weiss with his head. "After I'd had enough of the cloning program, Weiss asked me to destroy it. She said that the mere thought of the clones creation disgusted her, so I used my Electrokinesis to destroy the machines, and she thanked me like I'd just saved her life from a B.O.W." Ryan sighed. "After that, I immediately left the facility to try and catch up to the convoy."

Alice blinked in surprise. By her requesting that he destroy the cloning program entirely, it meant that she'd grown independant at the time, and was beginning to break away from Umbrella. She had been disgusted by the idea of false humans... could that mean that Weiss has had emotions from before they had even entered the Vegas labs?

"Wow, I... I never considered that. Weiss, thank you for you help. I'm glad I had the chance to meet the real you, the one that wasn't imprisoned by Umbrella. If I could hug you, I certainly would." Alice smiled sheepishly, but suddenly Weiss enveloped Alice in her arms, taking her by surprise.

"But I can certainly hug you, Alice. Now, to be honest, I am still imprisoned by Umbrella, so long as Wesker is alive and this facility... no... my HOME is still connected to Umbrella's wretched networks, I am still their prisoner. You have a mission from Michelle to find her men. That mission is complete; the were lost to the escaped B.O.W's mere hours after entry." Weiss released Alice from her embrace and held her by the shoulders. "But now you have a mission from me! Kill that infernal man, then clear out my home of those damned B.O.W's so that I may finally join Sanctuary. Will you do this mission, Alice... Ryan?"

Ryan typed out his response, then tapped send. Weiss smiled at him, since he clearly said yes. Alice reached out her hand very slowly, and placed it against Weiss' cheek.

"It would be my pleasure, Weiss." Alice smiled proudly as she took her hand away and unsheathed both of her kukris with simultaneously loud *schwiing* sounds. "Time for us to deal with a pest... after that, we still have some spiders to clean up, right babe?" 


	20. Chapter 20

Weiss lead them down the hall until they reached the comms room's sealed blast doors. Ryan immediately approached the access panel beside the door and pried it off. But before he could do any further adjustments, Weiss stopped him.

"We must wait until he is no longer communicating with the Board of Directors. Otherwise the nearest facility will send a team to extract him, and I am most certain that the slimy weasel will make an escape as soon as he gets an opportunity. I will keep an eye on his screen until he is finished the meeting. He has been in that particular meeting for two hours and fifty-five minutes so far, and they are rigidly scheduled to to last for exactly three hours. When he is not in a meeting, he reads the documents that had been dispersed during the meetings."

"Five minutes, then we can kill the bastard? Fine with me. Gives me time to sharpen my blades." Ryan sat with his back against the wall below the opened panel, and pulled a whetstone out of his belt, then began to sharpen each of his wrist blades.

"I assume that the bracers on your arms also have those hidden blades as well, is that correct Alice?" Weiss asked, her gaze watching her tablet despite her question.

"Nope. I only have one of them. Katie also has just one. Ryan created them before Raccoon City as a means of self defence." Alice explained, "That one on his right arm used to belong to his uncle, who helped Ryan to make them in the first place."

"Ah, I see. My systems didn't pick up their presence on his arm, and only now has their purpose been revealed." Weiss said with an appreciative smile, but a moment later, her expression turned serious. "The meeting has finished. Wesker is beginning to read the files. Now it is time for you to go inside. I shall wait out here, unless you wish for me to be present in my... shall I say, true form, instead of a disembodied voice."

"I think that since Wesker knows about your hologram projectors, he'll probably shoot them. I have no doubts in my mind that he as a gun or two under that suit jacket." Alice indicated Wesker's image on her holographic tablet. "Wait out here until we're ready to deal the coup de grace on him, then you can reveal your new look and your independance."

"Very well, I will wait here. I will be watching over the security cameras for your signal. When you do start fighting, I shall activate the microphones in the room so that you can notify me when to enter." Weiss waved her hand and both of their tablets faded away. Alice stood at the ready in front of the doors while Ryan stood up and worked at bypassing the lock.

Suddenly Weiss turned around in surprise, which made Alice turn around to see over her shoulder, noticing on her tablet that the elevator that they'd taken down here from the surface was descending, and on it was a red dot...

"Katie!" Alice took a step closer to Weiss, who gave Alice a surprised expression.

"She must have picked up on our Telepathy. She'll probably explain once she gets here." Ryan commented after a glance over his shoulder revealed Alice staring at Weiss' tablet.

"Weiss, can you tell her to join us? I think she's ready for a fight with Wesker." Alice asked, glancing at her.

'Certainly, I shall return in a few minutes with your sister." Weiss faded from sight, leaving Ryan and Alice alone in the hallway. Ryan stood up from his wire tinkering so that the doors wouldn't open prematurely, exposing their presence.

"Wasn't Wesker at the Vegas facility when Katie was still Project: June? She must have heard us mention his name and rushed here for vengance. She probably hates him as much as you do, Alice." Ryan asked, retracting his wrist blades and beginning to sharpen his katana.

"I think so, yes. At least Weiss is there to meet her instead of those Web Spinners. She'll understand once Weiss explains everything to her." Alice agreed, leaning against the opposite wall while they waited. She sheathed her kukris and pulled out her M3.

Moments later, the elevator at the end of the hall dinged to signal the arrival of Katie, who rushed out of the car when she had enough space to squeeze herself through the gap. She was fully armed to go to war; K-BAR was on her shoulder attached to a shoulder holster that held her M29 revolver, on her back was her M870, her dual MP7's were in her hands, her Glock 17 was on her hip, and her wrist blade was still firmly in place on her arm. Anything else that was on her body was dozens of pouches for ammo.

"I heard you talking about Wesker, so I geared up and came as fast as I could. I want to see the bastard suffer in my flames." Katie clicked the safeties off her MP7's to solidify her point. "By the way, that Weiss lady is actually the White Queen... isn't she?"

"Yup. Now she is independant, and sentient. She is her own person now." Alice replied as Ryan sheathed his katana and pulled his G36K off his back. "We'll deal with that Challenge after we finish up here, okay, Itoshii?"

Ryan nodded and returned to bypassing the blast doors for several seconds, but Katie put her hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. "Let me do it."

Ryan gave her a smile and backed several feet away. Alice immediately took his example and moved away from Katie as she stared intensly at the blast doors for several seconds before they suddenly exploded inwards in a fiery explosion.

Ryan and Alice immediately readied their guns and followed Katie inside the comms room, where Wesker was still seated in his chair, although he had turned to face them with an extremely smug expression on his sunglasses covered face.

"Project: June, I see you've managed to locate Project: Alice. Well done." Wesker smiled humourlessly. "But I do recall ordering you to return her to the Las Vegas facility, not bring her to this lab."

Ryan growled loudly, and Wesker turned his gaze to face him. "I don't remember ordering you bringing him either, Project: June. It seems that he is displeased with this outcome."

"He's my brother. My real brother, the one you had your men attack so that they could capture me, four and a half years ago in DC." Katie's voice was dripping with rage, and her fingers were curled around the triggers of her MP7's already. "I'm not here to delivery my mom to you either!" Katie stated in a louder voice as she raised her MP7's and aimed them at Wesker. "I AM HERE TO KILL YOU!" She screamed at the top of her voice, which made Ryan and Alice aim their guns at him as well, tensed for a fight.

"You think that Project: Alice is your mother? I highly doubt that to be true. But, if you are indeed here to kill me, then by all means..." Wesker smirked as he slowly rose to his feet and took off his sunglasses, revealing his bright orange reptilian eyes. "Go ahead and try!"

Wesker threw his sunglasses at Ryan, who immediately released a magnetic pulse from his body to deflect them back towards Wesker. But in that moment they were returning, the sunglasses suddenly beeped and exploded like a flashbang, blinding them briefly.

With a grin, Wesker rushed at them in a similar way that Ryan's super speed made him vanish briefly, and he was invisible at the moment the flash went off, thus rendering him unaffected. He grabbed Katie and knocked her down to the floor while she tried to clear her vision. Next he grabbed Alice by the throat and threw her bodily across the room where she landed against the wall, still disoriented by the flashbang and couldn't defend herself.

However, when he turned towards Ryan, he was met with the barrel of Ryan's assault rifle a few inches from his face. Just as Ryan pulled the trigger, he grabbed the barrel and pushed it away from his face. The bullet barely grazed his cheek, leaving behind a small red cut.

However, with another much stronger magnetic pulse, Ryan sent Wesker flying back several feet, where he landed perfectly upright, only to receive an full blown tackle to the stomach by Ryan.

"I see. You would have been an excellent Project, child. You are impressively bonded with the T-Virus." Wesker remarked as Ryan plowed him through several desks, only to have Wesker grind his heels to the floor and stop him dead in his tracks. "Sadly you weren't properly manufactured."

With a powerful elbow slam against Ryan's armoured back, Wesker knee'd him in the stomach and tossed him back across the room beside Alice. However, he broke right through the solid concrete wall and slid across the hallway floor before painfully slamming his back against the other wall.

Alice finally recovered from the flashbang attack and raised her M3 to fire at Wesker as he slowly approached Katie on the floor, where she was still suffering from the effects of the flashbang. He used his super speed to dodge each shot, using the time between rounds to move closer and closer to Alice until when she fired her last shell in the gun, he was within arm's reach of her and grabbed her by the throat, squeezing her windpipe in an iron grip.

"You were the first... the best... the original... Now you are a liability that must be eliminated. Take care of your DAUGHTER in the Afterlife... Alice."

"Fffffuck... yoooooou... Wwwwesssskerrrr."

Alice turned her rapidly fading gaze to see Ryan slam his cestus covered fist into Wesker's face, which momentarily loosened his iron grip and allowed Alice to escape from his grasp. She fell onto her back, coughing hard.

With Wesker still reeling from his powerful armoured punch, Ryan swung his other fist into Wesker's jaw, then slammed his forehead into his nose. But his next punch was blocked, then his second was actually grabbed in Wesker's palm.

Ryan smirked widely as he moved his fist and extended his wrist blade straight into Wesker's exposed wrist. He grunted and stumbled from the surprise attack, then smiled at Ryan evilly.

"You should know that a sneak attack only works one time, fool." Wesker sneered before he dashed out of sight.

Ryan dodged Wesker's dash attack, and saw Wesker's posture change into a definite martial arts stance. He did his own dash, not to attack, but to evade.

Right in the nick of time, he had dodged what would have been a fatal strike to his chest from Wesker's hand acting as an improvised pike. Had he still been there, it would have been definitely impaled right into his heart.

Rematerializing beside Katie, who was still recovering from the flashbang since it had unfortunately detonated right beside her face. Knowing that, Ryan understood why she was still unable to fight. He helped her stand, keeping his assault rifle aimed towards Wesker.

Allice tossed her M3 aside with a clatter, drawing her Glocks and aiming them at Wesker, who quickly turned his gaze to face her again, but his smirk made her snarl and begin firing as fast as she could, hoping to distract him long enough for Katie to join them.

As she expectd him to do, Wesker began to use his speed to dodge her gunfire, but he wasn't advancing towards any of them. He was simply evading in a random pattern in the center of the room.

Katie suddenly joined in firing at Wesker, using both of her MP7's at the same time, covering him in a hail of bullets.

However, even with two sources of gunfire, Wesker dodged effortlessly, not a single bullet landed a direct hit nor a graze.

Ryan aimed his rifle at Wesker, but held his fire as he noticed the pattern to Wesker's dodging. He was dodging in a star shape pattern, moving between five specific points before disappearing again.

Aiming at Wesker's next spot, Ryan started firing his entire magaine in the spot while Wesker was in limbo.

Just as he'd expected, Wesker reappeared directly in the shower of bullets and took the last few rounds straight through his chest. He snarled at Ryan realizing his tactic, then switched to more agressive attacks. He performed another dash, this time targeting Katie as she switched magazines for her MP7's. He reappeared right in front of her and slammed his open palm into her chest, causing a small shockwave to eminate from the contact before she was sent crashing to the floor with a scream of agony. When she slid to a halt, she gave an audible groan, but was obvious that she was down for the count for a while.

Still close to Ryan, he swung his leg around in a blindingly fast roundhouse kick, slamming his heel into Ryan's chest and somehow sending him crashing straight into the ceiling. As Ryan collided, he grabbed his SAA off his chest and fired it as fast as he could into Wesker's head, landing two direct hits before gravity reclaimed him and Wesker uppercutted him in the jaw, flipping him over in midair and landing on his back.

"Alice, go for his legs. Make sure his mobility is destroyed while we recover." Ryan quickly relayed to her as she tossed her empty Glocks aside and withdrew her revolvers.

With Ryan at Wesker's feet, and Katie unconcious, it was all up to Alice to at least slow him down long enough for one of them to get back into the fight. She fired her Python's in an alternating pattern, targeting his kneecaps as he kicked Ryan in the stomach.

Wesker spun around at the first shot, but suddenly Ryan wrapped his arms around his legs, holding him in place as Alice continued firing, none of the rest of her bullets missed, and Wesker dropped down onto one knee with a snarl of rage.

"Just because you shot me doesn't mean I'm finished!" He sneered, but Ryan grabbed his ankle and twisted it violently, breaking the bones in his leg. Wesker grunted with pain, but grabbed Ryan by the throat and slid him across the floor, where he stopped beside Alice.

Alice helped Ryan to his feet, just as Wesker was suddenly riddled by a hail of bullets. They turned to see Katie laying on her stomach, holding one of her MP7's with both hands, the barrel smoking as she slid the empty one aside and grabbed her other one, once again emptying the magazine into his body.

Without stopping, Katie withdrew her M870 and threw it to Alice, and then grabbed both her sidearms, firing them into Wesker as fast as she could from her downed position.

Rising to his feet, despite his severed ankle bones, Wesker seemed unsteady as Alice pumped Katie's shotgun and fired at Wesker over and over again, until the weapon was empty.

Ryan joined in as well, firing all five rounds from his Masterykey into Wesker's chest, but somehow, the bastard was still on his feet!

Before either of them could react, there was a whirling sound, and Katie's ever faithful K-BAR thudded right into Wesker's throat, gushing out dark red blood as he wrenched the blade out and tossed it aside, swaying unsteadily. However, Ryan approached him as he clutched his throat, and gave him a small shove to knock him off balance.

Wesker stumbled backwards and fell onto his back, staring up at Ryan as he stood over Wesker and began to smile, extending his wrist blade with a sinister edge to his grin.

With some difficulty, Wesker spoke despite his throat gushing blood all over the floor around him. "You think that a little switchblade on your arm will stop me? Think again."

"They're not switchblades." Katie's voice declared, and it was followed by the distinctive sound of her own wrist blade being extended. "They are spring-loaded self defence wrist mounted blades, created and built by my brother."

With a rage filled war cry, Katie suddenly rose to her feet and charged forward, slamming her wrist blade into Wesker's chest, followed by Alice suddenly landing beside her from a long jump and impaled hers into his lung from under his arm.

Wesker made several gurgling sounds, still trying to speak as Ryan beckoned towards the mangled doors. Weiss peered around the doorway and gracefully walked towards them. Wesker's red gaze was instantly locked onto her new appearance as she moved to stand just behind Ryan's shoulder.

"Chairman Albert Wesker, you are hereby convicted of crimes against humanity, and are sentenced to execution by blades. How do you plea to the sentence given by the governing party of Sanctuary?" She spoke in her old voice, the British one that Wesker knew from the Las Vegas labs.

Ryan leaned really close to Wesker and pulled down his mask with a truely sinister smile on hs face as he actually spoke vocally for the second time since he'd been muted.

"Fffffuck yoooooou, Wwwwwwwwwesssssssssskerrrrrrr. Ennnnnjooooy Helllllll."

Wesker stared at Ryan, terrified by the sound of his voice as Ryan extended his other wrist blade and smiled even wider. "Twoooo blllllaaaaaaadesssss, biiiitch!"

With that revelation, Ryan impaled both blades through Wesker's eyes. It took one more gurgling breath from Wesker before he finally died. All three of them wrenched their blades free of his corpse and stared at each other in shock.

"Ryan... you... you can talk?" Alice slowly extended her hands and gently placed them on either side of his head, her eyes filling with tears of joy before she kissed him feverishly, the tears sliding down her face in rapid succession.

"Nnnnnot... vvvvvvvverrrrrrry welllll. Ssssstilllll heeeealllllinggggg." Ryan smiled at her as he rasped out his reply. "But I can still use Telepathy like always. I'll keep trying to practice, unless you want me to stay a mute, that is." he added with Telepathy, smiling happily at her as she wrapped her forearms around the back of his head and kissed him again with even more vigor.

"We'll figure that out when we get there..." Alice whispered, breathing hard from the battle's victory, the shock of his recovery, and how oddly turned on she felt knowing that she could once again hear his cocky, smartass voice... His REAL voice.

"If I may, my sensors are picking up the T-Virus inside of his corpse. It appears to be reviving him, just like with Ryan back in Vegas." Weiss cleared her throat gently, but Katie waved her hand airily.

"I got this. Let them have their moment, they definitely need it." Katie slammed her fist as hard as she could into what remained of Wesker's face, which completely destroyed it in an explosion of dark red blood.

"Here, try these." Ryan detached the cestus from his hands and held them out to Katie, but she shook her head.

"This is personal." Katie declared firmly. "I'm doing this on my own, with my own two hands."

With that, Katie resumed her superhuman punching, turning Wesker's entire head into a puddle of red liquid, then got to work on working her way down his bullet riddled body. She burned his suit to a crisp with each punch, and even melted the pistol he'd had in a shoulder holster under his jacket into a gooey lump of metal.

It took quite a while, but once she was finally finished, panting very hard, she staggered to her feet, her arms covered in blood all the way up to her elbows, and her entire torso drenched by the splatter.

She then created a fireball in her hand and threw it into the puddle that had formerly been Wesker. It ignited instantly, and she continued to stare into the flames for a long time before they died out entirely, leaving behind nothing but a memory. She fell to her knees, then onto her side, passing out from total exhaustion.

"Bring her back to the surface, I'll get to work on clearing out the uppermost floor of the escaped B.O.W's." Ryan explained with his Telepathy, unsheathing his katana and walking back to the elevator. While he waited for the elevator to arrive, he reattached his cestus to his hands, his expression beaming with pride for what Katie had done to sever the final chain that bound her to Umbrella.

"Well done, Katie... Mom and Dad would've been so proud of you." Ryan thought to himself as he entered the car and ascended to the top floor. "I'm proud of you..."

**A/N: The remaining Chapter, #21, as well as the two parts of the Epilogue will be uploaded individually. From this point on, it will be a single upload instead of a set of five.**


	21. Chapter 21

Many hours of fighting later, Ryan and Alice breathed out exhausted sighs as they slumped against the wall beside each other, staring at their latest Web Spinner kill. Weiss stood nearby, consulting her tablet to confirm the presence of the T-Virus in the facility.

"My sensors indicate that there aren't any more B.O.W's left alive. I can only detect the two of you right in front of me. You've finally done it! It's finally cleared. Thank you very much." Weiss was beyond happy with their success.

"One last thing before we leave." Alice relayed Ryan's question that he'd just asked Telepathically. "Ryan wants to know what the Purge device does."

"It has two different functions. The first function is a two stage facility-wide incineration. Anything that is flammable or organic is immolated in mere seconds due to the sudden increase in temperature to six thousand degrees Celcius." Weiss explained. "This is then followed by the facility's sprinkler systems extinguishing any remaining flames."

"And the other function?" Alice relayed, even though she already knew the answer herself.

'The entire facility self destructs." Weiss replied simply. "All computers are delivered automatic electromagnetic pulses, rendering all data corrupted, then the structure is destroyed seconds later."

"And what function did you give me access to?" Ryan asked, extending his hand and causing his holographic tablet to appear in his grasp. He didn't type anything, just stared at the screen. Alice relayed his question for him, and Weiss gave a slow nod.

"I gave both. But now that the facility has been secured and gone completely rogue, there is no longer any need for the Purge system to remain operational. I have completely disabled the source codes from my systems and disarmed the device itself." Weiss replied in a proud voice.

"I have an idea, why not rearm the first function to clear out all of the B.O.W corpses? We'll leave, and you set off the system, then come back once it is all safe." Alice suggested, but Weiss shook her head as she pressed her tablet to her chest.

"The Purge device will never be operational ever again, and I removed the computer code from my systems entirely. Even if I tried, it would never work again." Weiss explained, but Ryan looked up at her and spoke vocally.

"Kaaaatieeeeee caaaaannnnnnnnn buuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnn themmmmm."

"Good idea, but until she recovers from her exhaustion, that cannot be done." Weiss reminded him, "If she is capable of doing it, she can clear out the entire facility with her own version of the Stage One Purge."

"We'll have to confirm that even for ourselves, Weiss. But that is a perfect idea. Is there any way that we would be able to head back to the surface to notify Michelle that our mission is complete, except for the cleaning up."

"Certainly. I believe that the Level 5 Quarantine is now rectified. I will release the lockdown momentarily." Weiss began tapping several commands into her tablet, then the sounds of locks began releasing from all around them, and they both sighed happily.

"Alright, we'll head back topside and let Michelle know the place just needs some cleaning, then it can officially become part of Sanctuary. I take it that this place has an operational medical center, food supplies, an armoury, everything, right?" Alice asked, sheathing her kukris onto her lower back.

"Yes, the only real damage that I can detect was Katie's destruction of my communications room blast doors and Wesker's damage to the walls from throwing you around. Nothing else appears to be damaged in any way." Weiss replied with a firm nod. "The lockdown has finished being removed. The elevator should take you all the way to the top floor from here. I shall await Katie's arrival."

Alice gave a nod, then took Ryan's hand and hauled him to his feet. They gave Weiss a wave before entering the nearest elevator and taking it all the way back to the surface entrance.

"So... How many kills did you get? I'll chalk up Wesker's death as Katie's, so it won't count. I killed 202 B.O.W's... How many did you kill?" Ryan asked as they strode past their respective first kills.

Strangely, the entire facility had been inhabited by Web Spinner B.O.W's and not a single zombie. Maybe the Web Spinners were capable of breeding, and had originally fed on the former staff inside the facility before their food source was eliminated. Thus they'd been more than hungry when Michelle's recon team came inside the facility. Unfortunately Wesker had the T-Virus in his body, thus providing him with perfect camoflauge from their hunger.

"207." Alice replied with a smug grin. "Looks like I won that Challenge. When do I get my reward?"

"Soon." Ryan replied with an equally smug grin as they stepped onto the surface elevator and ascended to the surface. "You'll see, Itoshii."

Alice groaned. He was going to taunt her about it until he actually revealed it. This was going to be torture. Pure, cruel torture.

Once they arrived at the surface, it was nighttime, so they quickly returned to the fenceline that they'd originally traversed. Thankfully when they neared the fence, one of the guards confirmed their identities before they could be shot at. As they came within range for Ryan to jump, he suddenly grabbed Alice under her knees and swung her into his arms, causing her to squeal with surprised delight before laughing as he continued running. However, the good natured expression on her face changed when he suddenly launched himself into the air and flew over the fence by almost ten feet. She gave a startled cry as they flew over the heads of the laughing guards.

Alice wrapped her arms around his neck tightly as the ground loomed closer in her vision, but Ryan simply laughed and landed in a long slide, skidding to a halt twenty feet away from the inital point of contact.

Amidst the roaring laughter of the guards, Ryan put Alice down, only to receive a kiss from her.

"That was actually really fun." She teased him. "C'mon, let's head back home for the night. We can go find Michelle in the morning."

Returning to their apartment a few minutes later, they entered to find that Katie had indeed completely rearranged the furniture since they'd left. In fact, Katie was fast asleep on the couch, all of her gear piled on the floor beside her in a mess of pouches and guns.

"Shhh... let her sleep. She definitly needs it after dealing with Wesker the way she did." Alice spoke Telepathically as she carefully closed the door behind them. "Come with me."

Taking him by the wrist, Alice lead him across the apartment in total silence and into the short hallway where the three bedrooms and the bathroom were located. She pulled him into the master bedroom and Telekinetically closed the door behind him as she pushed him to sit down on the bed.

"So this is our room. I like it, very cozy." Ryan smiled, pulling his mask down as he began to remove all of his weapons from his body, including his Beretta. He slid them all under the bed, but when he'd straightened back up, he was startled by the sight of Alice pulling her shirt over her head.

His gaze was almost instantly locked onto her smoothly toned stomach that had just barely a hint of showing off her strong abs. As the shirt moved further upwards, he blushed brightly as he took in the sight of her bra covered breasts.

She finally removed the shirt and tossed it onto the floor, her gaze more focused on what she was doing rather than how statuesque that Ryan had become, staring at her in near panic.

She next began to remove her gear belt and leg holsters, unintentionally doing it with a taunting slowness as Ryan's eyes followed her hands every movement. She tossed the gear belt aside as well, with the holsters still attached.

Ryan felt a bead of sweat sliding down his forehead, but he couldn't move a single muscle. Alice's unintended striptease had him completely paralyzed with the sole exception of his eyes. They alone were able to move, but they were locked onto to her slowly revealing herself to him.

With a sigh, she then pulled her jeans down, excrutiatingly slowly, her long toned legs slowly being revealed to Ryan's stunned eyes. She stepped out of them from around her ankles and finally realized that he had watched the entire process of her undressing.

With a small laugh, Alice stepped closer to him and pushed him onto his back with her hand on his shoulder, crawling over top of him in nothing except for her bracers and her underwear.

"Liked what you saw?" She teased him, giving him a long slow kiss. "I think it's fair to have teased you like that, like you've been doing about my reward for that Challenge, hm?" She asked, still using Telepathy so that they wouldn't wake up Katie.

"You really want to know what the reward was going to be?" Ryan smiled as Alice began to make quick work of his body armour's buckles, then she Telekinetically pulled it off, then tossed it to the floor with a soft thump. "Do you really want to know?" He teased even more as Alice removed his heavily loaded gear belt and unbuckled his holsters leg straps.

"Maybe... Maybe not." Alice purred as his belt joined hers on the floor with a definitely noticible thumping sound. However, neither of them cared if Katie heard them as the rest of Ryan's armour was removed from his body, including his hood, mask and the ammo pouches on his left bicep. However, Alice stopped dead in her tracks after she reached for his left bracer, the one that apparently hid his scar.

"Can... Can I..." She stumbled through her question, but in a surprising move from Ryan, he reached between their torsos with his other hand and began to unbuckle the bracer from his arm.

"I think it's time I actually showed you the reason that I hide this scar." Ryan explained as he finally after all the time since he'd first donned that bracer over four years earlier, removed it from his arm and tossed aside.

Alice stared at the massive scar than almost covered the entire length of his inner forearm, But the shape of the scar caught her attention and she giggled.

"The scar looks like it's in the shape of a dick. Is that why you hid it for all these years?" Alice asked, slowly and gently running her fingertips along the length of the scar.

"Yeah, actually, it is. I know, it's such a trivial reason, but ever since I made it, I'd NEVER taken it off for any reason. But I think that you would understand my reasoning, so you are the first person in the world to see my left forearm in it's full glory." Ryan replied Telepathically as he shivered at her gentle touch. It sent chills down his spine when she touched any of his scars.

"Well, speaking of seeing things in their full glory..." Alice's voice adopted a husky purr as she pulled his black T-shirt over his head and threw it over her shoulder. She smiled triumphantly as she FINALLY got to see his powerfully muscled chest, one that his infernal shirt had only shown hints, teased and taunted her eyes. Now, it was all hers to feast her eyes upon, to touch, to love.

With a quick flick of his wrist, Ryan unclasped Alice's bra from around her back, and her arms quickly went to catch the falling garment, but Ryan knocked it aside in mid air, leaving her to smile seductively as she concealed her breasts from him with her arms.

"Oh, you naughty boy!" Alice taunted him, then realized that in their current position of her straddling his legs, they could progress no further in their mutual undressing.

"I'm sure you've caught onto that side of me at some point." Ryan replied with a wide smile, carefully lifting her up by the hips and freeing his legs from her hold.

Alice quickly wrapped her arms and legs around his body for support as he stood up, then she Telekinetically sent his cargo pants straight to the floor along with his boxers, her mouth occupied with his own, both of their tongues fighting for control.

"One more thing left to do." Ryan taunted as he reached his left hand down to her panties and slowly pulled them down her smooth toned legs. She lightly hopped down from her hold around his body, then stepped out of her last garment, both of them finally standing in their full glory.

"I only have one thing to say to you, Itoshii." Alice spoke Telepathically with a huge smile on her face, her eyes staring at him seductively.

"And that is?" Ryan asked, raising an eyebrow as he slowly ran his hand from the top side of her ribcage down to her hip.

"I want you to fuck me like you mean it." Alice replied vocally just before launching herself into his arms.


	22. Epilogue A

Several weeks after killing Wesker and eradicating Weiss' labs of the Web Spinners, Ryan, Katie and Alice had been enjoying a day to themselves after their schedules had lined up. Ryan had been assigned a job at the hydroelectric dam, monitoring and even providing power to the city whenever it needed it. Unknown to anyone else though, he was also there as an early T-Virus detection failsafe, since the river that lead to the dam was the main weakspot of Sanctuary's hefty defences. Ryan had authorized the installation of several barriers and protective fencing along the width and sides of the river after one lucky discovery of a zombie floating down the river.

Alice however, had been ordered by Michelle to supervise all activity inside of the labs with Weiss at her side. They were working on finding an actual cure to the T-Virus, the idea for which had been brought forward by Weiss herself. She was also given Michelle's personal approval to set up a solar power array from a cache of such devices she'd found hidden inside a storage warehouse inside the bowels of the lower labs. She had been supervising their enplacement since they had been found the previous week.

Finally, Katie had been informed that due to her age, she was to attend the elementary school that was located on the other side of town from their apartments. Much to her protesting, even Ryan agreed to the descision. Alice had simply gave a firm 'yes' and ended the argument stone cold. So, during the week, Katie was in classes for a majority of the day, but after school ended, she would be often found in the company of K-Mart (who also had an argument with her guardian about classes. Sadly, her guardian was still Claire, so her attempts had been doomed from the very start.) and Taylor as well, who had revealed her age to Katie, which was also fourteen. K-Mart was the oldest of the three at seventeen, but the three of them got along equally.

Every now and again though, Michelle would seek out Ryan, Alice or Katie to send them out with a scavenging team when there was something they couldn't provide for themselves, such as certain medicines, scrap metal, even something such as the official currency of Sanctuary; Bottlecaps.

The last time that Michelle wanted them to go on what she called a 'money run', she had sent Ryan and Alice together with a team of scavengers. Thankfully the specified location was within a few miles, so they hiked to a very small town that had once supported a population of a few hundred.

While the scavengers raided the remnants of an old bar, Ryan and Alice had wandered into a pharmacy next door in the off chance that there was any possible type of bottlecaps they could find. Even the plastic ones from soda pop bottles had value, but the more coveted ones were the metal ones from vintage glass soda pop bottles, or beer bottles. Other than those, and the plastic ones, there was nothing else that they really bothered to use as money. Anything else that they found while on the trip was just bonus loot.

So, while Ryan strolled along the bare shelves that used to hold a majority of medical supplies, he spotted Alice a few aisles over, scanning the other shelves until she found something and stared at it with her eyebrow raised. Ryan noticed and asked her Telepathically. "Find something useful?"

"No, it's empty. But you won't believe how many condoms are still here." She laughed and beckoned him over to see it for himself. He smiled and came around the shelves to see an untouched display rack of condoms. It was as if the display had never been touched before the outbreak had even happened, it was completely stocked!

"Why am I not surprised?" Ryan laughed as he turned to wander towards the back of the pharmacy. "I think I found a vintage soda pop machine back here. Can you give me a hand to get it opened?"

Alice gave an 'uh-huh' sound and followed him to the back of the store, where there was indeed not one, not two, but three untouched old school soda pop machines in a row against the back wall. "Holy shit! I'll get them open, just give me a second."

Ryan smiled at the possibly supply of money they'd find inside the machines. He waited for Alice's Telekinesis to break the machines open, and he was greeted by the sight of three nearly full caches of classic glass bottles, complete with the metal caps they were looking for.

"Let's get started with dumping these out. I'm surprised the liquid is even inside them." Alice pointed to a bathroom door at the very back of the store. "You get them out of the machines, I'll empty them and collect the caps."

Ryan nodded and began to pull the bottles out of the first machine while Alice grabbed the equivalant of an armful with her Telekinesis and went into the bathroom.

A minute or two later, she opened the door slightly and collected the next batch of bottles, and Ryan saw that she had piled the empty ones on the floor behind her. He continued emptying the machines, and when he was finished, he gathered the last armful and carried them to the door. "Alice, this is the last of them. I'll leave them outside the door, I just want to check in on the others. I'll be right back."

Setting the bottles down, Ryan left the pharmacy and went into the bar. The moment that his footsteps had faded away, Alice let out a sigh of relief as she stared at the pregnancy test in her hand, which clearly showed that she was indeed pregnant. She had found it beside the condom display, the last one in its box. She had hidden it in her sleeve when Ryan had come around to see the display rack, and she had waited until now to use it.

"We did it... Itoshii. We actually did it..." Alice mumbled to herself as her eyes filled with tears. She quickly wiped them away and collected the final batch of bottles.

When Ryan returned a minute or so later, he was met by Alice and a floating cloud of bottle caps following her across the pharmacy annd towards the door. "I think we're finished here. Time to head back to Sanctuary." Alice smiled at him, leading him back outside to the bar, where she was met with the scent of booze and several of the scavengers who had clearly drank the contents of the sealed beer bottles instead of just dumping them out like she did.

With a sigh, she found a brown paper bag nearby and directed her cloud of caps inside of it, which barely reached the top of the bag. She then collected the caps that had been collected by the others, and filled the bag to the very top. She picked it up and with a smirk, then began to levitate the drunk scavengers out the door one by one.

Back at the present, Ryan and Alice were enjoying a quiet moment out on the balcony of their apartment after a quick trip down to the marketplace to get food. Ryan was polishing his metal armour with a rag, while Alice was staring off into the distance, lost in thought. Katie was in her bedroom with Taylor, K-Mart had been there earlier, but Claire had come knocking in search of her, so she had left a short time earlier.

Alice suddenly spoke up, breaking their comfortable silence. "Remember what you said about the sight of me on the balcony? Backlit by the city and the stars... the full moon overhead..."

"Yes, I do. I would never forget something that perfect." Ryan replied Telepathically, pausing his polishing to give her a brief glance.

"What did I look like in that image? What was I wearing? Was I happy... sad... describe it to me, please." Alice continued in a quiet voice.

Ryan actually stopped what he was doing entirely to consider the image he had seen that day to describe what he'd felt. He was silent for several seconds before he replied. "You were happy, smiling... You had a little bird sitting in your hand, you were wearing a long flowing red dress, with gorgeous jewelery. Your hair was... it was breathtaking. Curly, and you had a tiara on your head." Ryan paused for a moment, a frown on his face. Unlike how he usually dressed, he was not wearing his hood, mask or even his vest. Al he had on was his wrist blades, his shoulder pouches, and his Beretta was safely hidden in the back of his waistband, as always. So Alice noticed the frown on his face.

"What is it?" Alice asked, still speaking very quietly.

"You were also pregnant."

Alice turned away at that, her expression changing from curiosity to a small smile. She hadn't revealed the fact she was pregnant to him yet.

"Remember that promise I made with you originally to teach me Japanese?" Alice reminded him of the moment in the campgrounds with the freshwater spring.

"Yes. 'I want you to promise to trust me, never doubt me, no matter what. There are no secrets between us.' That is what you said before you added. 'I want to be more than just your wife.'" Ryan replied, setting the metal armour aside and tossing the rag on top of it.

"Well, I guess I'd better reveal it to you." Alice slowly turned around, a tiny songbird perched on her finger as she switched to speaking vocally. "Ryan... I'm pregnant. You're going to be a father for real."

The sight of most of the balcony image he'd just described to her was one thing... but the revelation that Alice was indeed pregnant made him completely stunned for words. They did it. They were going to be parents... Parents that both bonded with the T-Virus, something that had never before been possible, let alone attempted.

"Daisuki Itoshii." Ryan slowly rose to his feet, and placed his hand on her stomach, his expression full of joy and pride. However, he spoke vocally, without his usual hissing rasp. He had been practicing speaking with the assistance of Weiss behind Alice's back. Mostly at night when Alice had fallen asleep, but sometimes when he wasn't needed at the dam, he would go to the labs for a short break and practice.

"Daisuki Itoshii." Alice repeated, giving him a kiss. "I love you too."

They stayed together for several long seconds until they both heard the sound of Katie screaming loudly. Ryan instantly vanished from sight as Alice hurried into the hall, just as Ryan materialized ahead of her. He opened the door and froze in his tracks. Alice looked over his shoulder to see what had happened, and she realized that Katie and Taylor had been having sex together on Katie's bed.

Grabbing Ryan by the back of his collar, Alice smirked and winked at Katie, who was turning a very bright cherry red in the face after being caught by her brother and mother having sex with her best friend. Alice closed the bedroom door with her Telekinesis as she dragged Ryan back into the living room.

"Smart girl. I didn't hear a thing until she screamed." Alice chuckled to herself as Ryan gave a laugh. "At least we can confirm that Claire was right about her after all... She's definitly a lesbian."

Ryan gave her a confused look. How did she know about that conversation?

"Don't give me that look. K-Mart finally spilled the beans on Claire the last time she came to pick up Katie for school. You were at the dam, so you missed it, but she told me everything about that little conversation." Alice chuckled to herself as Taylor opened Katie's door - wearing one of Katie's shirts - and hurried out of the apartment with rosy cheeks, holding something in her hand at her throat. "I knew I should've gotten a camera when I had my chance. Oh well, looks like the cat's out of the bag!" Alice teased over her shoulder as Katie closed her bedroom door loudly, completely and utterly embarrassed by the unexpected results of her pent up screaming.

"Should we tell her eventually?" Ryan asked Telepathically, smiling as widely as his throat's scar.

Alice considered the priceless expression on Katie's face when Ryan had opened the door. She wouldn't waste such a golden oppurtunity to tease the two girls, that was absolutely certain.

"We will..." Alice gave a small nod, but she smiled delilishly as she added. "...Eventually."


	23. Epilogue B

**Here's the other side of the Epilogue, but this time centered on Katie. Remember that she doesn't know that Alice is pregnant at all :P**

Katie was laying on her back on her bed, K-Mart and Taylor likewise lounging in her room. Taylor had lent them both a copy of a book she really liked, so K-Mart had become obsessed with the story and had her nose buried in one of the later chapters in the story, her back resting against the side of K-Mart's bed while she sat on the floor.

Taylor gave K-Mart a sly smile as she noticed what chapter she'd just begun to read. "You're going to love that chapter, Dahlia. It's... worth it."

K-Mart gave Taylor a suspicious glance, but returned to her reading as Katie idly conjured a small flickering flame on each of her fingers, one at a time. She had recently learned how to change the colour of her flames, and took mild amusement in changing each of the flames a different colour entirely. Purple, blue, green, pink, gold, silver, even pure white.

"What's so special about that chapter, Taylor?" Katie asked, lolling her head to read the pages over K-Mart's shoulder. It appeared to her that the two main characters were just having a casual conversation, so she disregarded it since she wasn't as far into the book as K-Mart.

"You'll see why when Dalhia reacts to it." Taylor smiled as she realized that Katie's flame tipped fingers perfectly matched her heterochromatic eyes, save for her thumb which was blindingly white. "Hey, that's a cool trick Katie!"

"Thanks, I've been practicing this all week." Katie smiled as she extinguished all five of the flames and snapped her fingers, creating a fist sized emerald green fireball in her left hand, and an amber one in her right.

"That's really cool! Maybe you could turn them into a fireworks show or something!" Taylor suggested, her eyes glittering with the light from the fireballs.

"Watch this." Katie smirked, then combined the two fireballs by pressing her hands together. The fireball expanded in size until it was the same size as her head, and it changed colour to a solid crimson. "This thing's actually cold, you can touch it."

Taylor's instincts screamed the logic of 'Fire equals hot, Hot equals pain.' but the trusting look in Katie's dual eyes made her suppress her hesitation and slowly extend her fingers to touch the red ball of fire.

The moment she touched it, she realized that even though she could feel the flames gently caressing her skin, there was no heat or pain. In fact, it was barely a cool temperature.

"That's amazing! How did you do that?!" K-Mart glanced up to see Taylor's awestruck expression, leaning her torso slightly over top of Katie's prone position to reach the flame.

'I can't really explain it... I just do it without any real consideration." Katie explained, then she had an idea. "Taylor, hold out your palm."

Taylor turned her flame cloaked hand over, still inside of the crimson fireball, but Katie suddenly grabbed her hand and covered it with her own. The big red fireball vanished instantly, and Taylor stared at Katie aprehensively.

"What are you doing?" Taylor asked, her voice sounding slightly scared, despite how much she trusted Katie.

"Open your hand after I let it go, okay?" Ktie curled Taylor's fingers into a fist with a smile. She winked her green eye, and for a second, her amber one had an underglow of her Pyrokinetic red light. "Trust me, okay?"

Taylor slowly exhaled through her nose, then nodded. Katie slowly released her closed fist, but Taylor didn't open it... not yet.

"Open." Katie encouraged, and Taylor noticed that K-Mart had stopped reading to watch. She slowly uncurled her fingers, and stared at the sight sitting in the palm of her hand.

"Holy shit!" K-Mart gawked at the small fireball that floated less than half an inch over Taylor's skin. But it wasn't any of Katie's usual fireballs either, it was changing colours!

"Wow... I don't... I don't even know what to say..." Taylor was speechless, but Katie smirked with a glint in her eye as she reached over her head to her small nightstand, producing a tiny glass bottle from the drawer.

"Put it in here." Katie smiled as Taylor gave her a look that clearly read 'how the hell do I do that?'.

"Watch." Katie teased, taking the fireball between her index finger and thumb, then dropped it into the beaker, then stoppered it with a small cork. "See? It'll never burn out, and it can't ignite anything since it is another one of my cold flames."

"Are... you... are you giving me this? An eternal flame?" Taylor stared at Katie in utter confusion. Even K-Mart had an eyebrow raised as she resumed reading.

"What, is it too much? I just thought you'd really like it." Katie blushed, but in her head she detected an odd increase in K-Mart's body temperature. She could also hear her heartrate accelerating for some reason that was unknown to her as well.

"No, I love it... It's just that... I-I don't have anything to... to give you in r-return." Taylor stammered and averted her gaze, her face turning bright red as she clutched the tiny glass vial in her fingers.

Katie smiled and shifted herself slightly closer to Taylor, still laying on her back. However, her head was right beside K-Mart's shoulder, so she glanced at the book, just as K-Mart gave a gasp and slammed the cover shut and tossed the book onto her nearby backpack.

"What's wrong?!" Katie rolled onto her stomach in panic, trying to figure out why Katie suddenly reacted like that. Then she realized that Taylor had started to laugh quietly behind them. "What's so funny?!"

K-Mart turned around with brilliantly red cheeks as she surprised both of them and launched herself on top of Taylor, pinning her forearms over her head with her hands.

"You... I could just... I..." K-Mart stumbled through the flurry of sentences her panicked mind was trying to formulate. "Why..." She growled in frustration before suddenly swooping her head down and kissing Taylor's shocked face. Katie's jaw hit the floor as she processed what had just happened...

K-Mart's book clearly had her all worked up, likely from an unexpected occurance in the chapter she'd been reading.

Taylor, knowing about it already had smugly taunted her about it, and thus K-Mart had pinned her to the bed...

BUT WHY THE HELL DID SHE KISS TAYLOR?!

Suddenly the sound of voices outside the closed bedroom door reached their ears, and K-Mart hurriedly stood up in panic. Taylor also began to listen to the voices, one of which was easily that of Alice... but she couldn't figure out who else was speaking.

"It's Claire and Alice... sounds like Claire is looking for you, K-Mart." Katie smirked, partly because of her superior hearing, but also because she'd basically been cockblocked - a term she'd recently learned from one of the more annoying boys in her classes - by Claire's arrival.

"Shit." K-Mart grabbed her bag and shoved the offending book inside, then grabbed her sunglasses from the floor and took two steps towards the door just as Claire opened it.

'Time to head home. You've got chores to do." Claire stated, then gave a glance at Taylor and Katie. "Don't worry girls, she isn't in trouble... much." Claire stood aside for K-Mart to leave the room. "She'll be back when she finishes up, okay?"

"'kay! See ya later K-Mart." They replied at the same time.

Claire gave a wave, closed the door and her footsteps moved away for a second or two before she loudly called. "See ya around, Alice, Ryan!"

The sound of the apartment door closing reached their ears, then the softer footfalls of Alice approached the door before either of them could even twitch a muscle. She knocked and slowly opened the door just wide enough to poke her head inside the room.

"Ryan and I are going down to the market for a few minutes to get stuff for lunch. We'll be right back." Alice informed them before she closed the door and walked away, her footsteps accompanied by the sound of Ryan's heavy boots.

Katie let out a long sigh, rolling onto her back. "No more interruptions? Anyone else want to say something to us? Going once... twice..."

Taylor gave a small giggle at Katie's annoyance. The only possible person that was left for them to be interrupted by was her own mother, Michelle. But since Michelle knew she was here - with permission from both Alice and herself - and also since Taylor didn't actually have any chores to do, they had very low chances of Michelle actually coming to call on them.

"What's got you so flustered, Katie?" Taylor laughed, acting surprisingly casual after K-Mart's surprise kissing. 'Don't tell me that you like K-Mart! Wait... are you a..." She suddenly had a thought, and her face was filled with dawning comprehension, but she was quickly silenced by Katie's mouth connecting with her own, and Katie's super heated and super strong body holding her down on the bed.

"Does that answer your question?" Katie separated her mouth from Taylor's, but she remained barely half an inch away, a small trail of their spit connecting their lips across the short gap.

Taylor couldn't believe what was happening. First K-Mart... now Katie?! However, a second later she realized something she should have noticed sooner...

Katie had given her the eternal fire... and when K-Mart pinned her - but before being kissed - She'd noticed that Katie's expression had changed from surprised to disappointed in an instant.

Katie liked HER... Katie was a lesbian!

"I never thought you, of all people, would be just like me." Taylor breathed, her chest rising and falling beneath the intense heat radiating from Katie's body. Her eyes narrowed in an attempt to be seductive as she smiled. "I never thought you'd be a lesbian. I seriously thought I would never get that chance."

"If you want the truth..." Katie slowly rose from atop Taylor's body, leaning her torso back with her weight resting on her forearms at her sides. "I have no idea what the fuck you just called me... But it sounds... really sexy."

"You don't know what a lesbian is?" Taylor giggled before she shifted herself to crawl towards Katie, moving her knees apart as she slowly inched forward until they were practically nose to nose. "It's when a girl likes other girls."

Katie also began breathing heavily, and her skin had become flushed, beads of sweat trailing down her body as Taylor placed her hand just below her armpit, then inched it down to the hem of her t-shirt.

"It took me forever to realize that you liked me... and I... I really like you two... I just never knew how to put in into a way you would understand..." Taylor blushed with embarrassment, but Katie moved her mouth to hers, silencing her babbling.

"Just shut up and fuck me." Katie smiled as she grabbed Taylor around the waist and pulled her down on top of her, still panting heavily.

Taylor gave a cute sounding 'oh!' when Katie grabbed her, but she finally suppressed any of her hesitation and began to pull Katie's shirt off her body.

The moment the shirt left her body, the waves of heat intensified almost two-fold, and Taylor placed her hands on either side of Katie's head on the mattress, holding herself above her for a moment as Katie pulled her shirt off as well.

"I know you're ridiculously strong, so do me a favour and try not to rip any of my clothes. My mom will find out, and I'll be in huge trouble." Taylor smiled, finishing the process of removing her shirt, then tossed it against the opposite wall.

"There'd be a lot less of a chance of them ripping if you did it yourself." Katie admitted sheepishly, unbuttoning Taylor's short shorts with one hand, the other gripping the bedsheets over her head tightly.

"Are you asking me to strip for you?" Taylor smirked, and when Katie bit her lip, she understood that it was indeed a request. "Okay then, I'll do it." Taylor agree in a husky tone, retreating to the edge of the bed and standing up before her.

Before they could do anything else, they heard Alice and Ryan returning. They both froze, their eyes wide with fear as Ryan's heavy footfalls approached the hallway.

However, their door remained closed as his footsteps continued past the door and clearly into his and Alice's bedroom down the hall, across from the other bedroom that they used as an armoury for their gear. As a matter of fact, Katie only ever kept her wrist blade on her at all times, but her Glock 17 was sitting inside the drawer of her nightstand beside her bed. Everything else - even all of Ryan's armour - was stored inside the room next to hers.

"He's in the armoury..." Katie whispered, her gaze staring up towards the headboard of her bed. She relaxed as Ryan's T-Virus aura moved out of the room, accompanied by the sound of him humming to himself.

Taylor and Katie remained motionless for several seconds, Katie tracking the movements of Ryan and Alice until she relaxed. "They're out on the balcony. We're fine now."

With that, Taylor bit her lip for a moment to consider how to proceed. So far, she just had her shorts, bra and her socks... She decided to start with her shorts and ignore the socks.

Slowly humming the zipper down, Taylor kept her gaze locked onto Katie's green eye. She slowly hooked her thumbs into her belt loops and slid them down, revealing the top of her panties, then slowly, teasingly, she pulled them down entirely, and Katie audibly sucked in a sharp breath.

Stepping out of the shorts around her ankles, Taylor slowly turned around, reaching to the clasp of her bra with both hands behind her back. She peered over her left shoulder, and saw that in that short moment she hadn't been looking, Katie had somehow managed to relieve herself of her jeans and her bra. However, she was still wearing her panties, which made Taylor smirk, further teasing Katie with the sight of her taunting pose.

With a small flick of her wrist, the clasp came free, and Taylor tossed the garment aside, covering herself with her free arm.

Katie's face changed from hungrily staring at Taylor's taunting face to mild dissapointment when she realized that Taylor had covered her breasts with her arm.

However, when Taylor turned around, Katie's eyes lit up brightly as she realized that Taylor had fairly large breasts for their age. She felt a small amount of drool creeping out of the corner of her lip, but she couldn't do anything to fix it as Taylor palmed her own chest in her hand and gave a firm squeeze.

Katie gasped quietly, Taylor's fingers were sending chills through her burning body, and she felt her fingers twitch, her arm disobeying her brain's order to imitate Taylor's actions... To cup and fondle Taylor's sizable chest.

"Have you ever done this with a girl before?" Taylor asked in a soft voice, lowering her face to Katie's much more modestly sized breasts. Katie shook her head back and forth, making a small noise that betrayed her eagerness for Taylor to continue. "I'll make sure that you're well taken care of, just sit back and leave it all to the pro."

Katie complied, leaning her back against her pillows and resting her arms at her sides to support her upper body. She liked the feeling she got from someone else taking charge. But then she remembered that they weren't alone.

"What if my parents hear us? What'll we do?" Katie breathed just as Taylor gave one of her nipples a very tiny lick. Katie sucked in a sharp breath, her chest heaving as she panted heavily.

"If they don't know... Then they won't do anything, will they?" Taylor smiled, giving Katie a kiss just below her ear, then trailed more and more kisses down the side of her burning neck, to her collarbone, and down to her breasts again.

Katie bit her lip as Taylor resumed teasing her nipples, fighting to maintain from screaming out from the growing sensation of pleasure she was feeling.

With an amused chuckle, Taylor slowly crawled backwards, trailing more and more quick kisses down Katie's torso, then her very muscular abdomen, and finally placed one last kiss below her navel.

"This is in the way. You don't mind if I..." Taylor suddenly wrenched Katie's panties down with both hands, pulling them clean off her legs and throwing them over her shoulder as she placed further kisses down to Katie's surprisingly clean folds, she had absolutely no public hair at all! Taylor mused in her head that the T-Virus had something to do with it as she gave Katie's entrance a tiny lick.

Katie groaned and bit down onto her knuckle, a tear edging down her cheek as she struggled to remain quiet. Taylor's tongue shot an electric shock worthy of Ryan's Electrokinesis straight up through her torso and made her entire body tense with pleasure.

"Taylor... please." Katie whimpered, her knees had begun to shake violently, her chest rising and falling with rapid shallow breaths as Taylor probed her tongue deeper inside of her folds. "I... can't... I can't keep quiet..."

Taylor gave no sign that she'd heard Katie's quiet voice, but continued to use her tongue to nimbly explore the depths of Katie's wet entrance. Katie placed her hand on top of Taylor's head as another, stronger jolt went through her body, making her bite down - hard - onto her knuckle, drawing out a small bead of her own blood from the sheer pressure she was exerting onto her finger to stifle her need to scream.

Taylor kept going, and Katie couldn't take much more of the torture. Her whole body heaved, then her eyes rolled into the back of her head as a paralyzing wave of pure amazing pleasure flooded her entire body. Her wet entrance gave out, flooding Taylor's awaiting mouth with her release as Katie screamed in ecstacy, her voice echoing in the confine space for a few seconds.

Taylor lifted her dripping mouth away from Katie's dripping folds, her face a combination of shocked and horrified. However, Katie was still recovering - though she was beginning to come back around rather quickly - from her explosive orgasm.

Suddenly Taylor heard a strange whooshing sound outside the door, followed by the sound of running footsteps as Katie lifted her head in surprise at the exact moment the door was thrown open, revealing Ryan with a fearful expression on his face.

For about a second and a half, Ryan stared at the two of them with an expression of utterly confused surprise, but suddenly he was pulled backwards by Alice, who gave Katie and Taylor a smirking wink before the door closed on its own from her Telekinesis.

The moment the door was closed, Taylor had somehow managed to get herself back into her shorts, bra and was hurriedly pulling a shirt back onto her body, then hurried out of the apartment in embarrassment, clutching the tiny vial that contained Katie's eternal rainbow flame to her throat. She heard Ryan and Alice chuckling to themselves as Katie's door was closed loudly enough for her to hear from the hall right after she'd closed their apartment door.

In her hasty escape, she didn't realize that she'd somehow managed to squeeze herself and her tits into Katie's much smaller and extremely tight fitting shirt. She smiled to herself as she descended the stairs. Now she had a reason to see Katie again... no, not just her friend Katie...

Her new girlfriend Katie...

**FIN**

**A/N: Hahahahaha, that was fun to write, especially the bit with K-Mart and Taylor unintentionally taunting Katie's crush on both of them. :D**

**Anyway, that's the end of Sanctuary. Thanks for reading! I just might continue this into a full blown Trilogy, but it might take some time. Anyway, let me know what you thought of this part of the Epilogue, since it was ENTIRELY a sex scene with Katie and Taylor. As you may have noticed, I didn't write out the sex that Ryan and Alice had. That is because, partly as a writer, but also since Ryan was originally a Self-Insert character in Humanity. Not to mention that I don't actually like writing heterosexual intercourse. I find Yuri AKA Lesbian sex scenes to be much easier, both to actually write, but also they are more easily accepted by the readers. Besides, I had originally intended - back while still writing Humanity - to write in a threesome sex scene between Alice, Claire AND Katie, but scrapped it entirely when I realized how late in the story I wanted to add it, which was just before they went to kill Issacs.**

**Anyway, thank you so much for reading all of this rambling, and once again, leave a review, tell me what you thought of Katie's first time, and stay tuned for the third - and final - installment of this story!**

**Signed, Acidika**


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